Fallout: Omega
by Dandusky
Summary: Ken lived a average, dull life as a nervous security officer in Vault-Omega 26. One day, a great danger threatens the Vault, and Ken volunteers to step out of his home and find their salvation.
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

_ A few hundred years ago, a spark of fire and ash spread all around the world and in less than an hour, nearly wiped out all life as we know it. Nuclear missiles ran across the sky along them bringing megatons of a unmerciful death wave that would take millions of lives instantly, and will take millions of more sooner or later. If you lived in the ocean. far from the explosions, You would see the missiles fly above your head. and even see the explosions themselves._

_ Luckily for me, my ancestors were from the good 'ol U-S of A! oh yeah, the country that was "winning" the war. The US was the appearently the only nation prepared for the war by building these giant underground bunkers that people can live one really knows why the war broke out, something about resources? I dunno._

_ Anyways, my ancestors may have been important people or something because they were invited to live in these giant underground nuclear bomb shelters called "Vaults" that only people with invitation could live in before the bombs dropped. These vaults can be as big as cities, or small as villages._

_ Huh, imagine being denied a invite to the vault " We're sorry, your ass isn't important enough to reserve a spot in our giant bomb shelters! Have a happy end of the world dickface!"_

_ Im getting off topic... My name is Ken Mierson. Citizen 121865 of Vault Omega26 B-Class "Security Guard"_

_22 years ago I was born in this Vault..._

_10 years ago I was told my father who I never knew is dead._

_4 years ago I was made a Security Guard_

_Yesterday was just an average day in the Vault_

_Tomorrow will change my life forever._


	2. Chapter 1

_"When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor."_

_Eleanor Roosevelt_

There I was, in one of the Vault's security rooms, overlooking the many monitors giving live video feed of the hallways and rooms. Ocassionally, I'd switch some monitors to different rooms and hallways to appease my boredom. It's like this everyday, It makes me look forward for the rotation, when I get patrol duty.

I just sat there with my little office chair, staring at the console. Not sleeping, not blinking, just staring. I guess I was having one of those moments where I question my life and all that shit.

My name is Ken Mierson, and this is just an average day in Vault Omega 26

"Hey asshole, you awake?"

Said a staticky voice coming from the console. I jump out of my trance and turned my attention to the console to reply.

"What is it, Liam? I'm in the middle of something" I said with an annoyed voice. "Oh sorry Ken! Did I ruin your naptime again?" said the voice with great sarcasm."Fuck off, Liam. What do you want?"

"The Overseer wants to see ya in his office" Liam responded. I grunted and said "Alright, I'm on my way".

I'm not a special guy. I didn't make many friends in school because I was such a nervous little fuck. I'd get bullied and teased all the time. Luckily, Liam was always there, he's like a brother to me always watching my back. He would pick on the bullies that pick on me and keep me accompanied as a friend.

In vault O-26 ('O' being short for Omega since There are several other vaults that begin with that name) The Vault itself is made up of several floors of hallways and rooms. I'd say the current population is around 4,000 people. Thankfully there is plenty of room inside the Vault, we're as big as a small town.

Everyone here had to wear the Vault's jumpsuits. Basically a uniform we all wear that covers the neck down to the ankles, it's colors are of blue with yellow stripes and despite how it looks it's actually really confortable.

One size fits all, and there are several variations of the jumpsuit. Variations such as the utility jumpsuit which are more fitted for engineers and matainence workers, the medical jumpsuit which carries it's own med kit for the doctors we have here, and finally the one I'm wearing right now: The Secruity Jumpsuit.

Definitely alot heaver than the others, the security jumpsuit has a black, type III bullet proof vest attachment with a short wave radio and a holster for pistol firearms.

Strangely enough, our vault's armory is _massive_. With only about 4000 residence, we have a large quantity of weaponry that can cover more than triple our population, not to mention armor and ammunition. It's like, we're expecting a war to happen.

A war DID happen though, something around 200 years ago. Maybe the government that created the Vaults overstocked them with weapons, armor and ammunition to expect the worst.

Buuuut, it's been more than 200 years so with no real trouble. We don't really need them!

In Vault Omega 26 students who complete about 12 years of education, have to take a profession exam which determines the job you will have for the rest of your life in the vault.

Don't ask me how, but I got 'Vault Security' as my profession, I actually went to the professor to find out if this was a mistake. Me, the kid being teased for 12 years, gets security? Well, It turns out the test found out that I can memorize the vault rules (which is an extremely long list that may as well be a book) and that I know what authority powers should be used on, All that useless stuff.

So here I am as security, It ain't so bad, I think I get more respect this way, all the bullies from years ago now ignore me. Liam also got security, so if they do pick on me, they got Liam to worry about. (Or I can just bash their heads in with my baton) As security, we had to take weapon drills on a fire range. according to the statistics, I am the most accurate shot in the force, which I do pride myself with.

I marched into the Overseer's office and noticed 2 other security guards there.

"You asked for me, sir?" I said.

"Yes, take a seat ken, I have to address something to all of you"

In every vault, there is always an Overseer, the leader of the vault that 'Oversees' everything. I'm not sure how it is like on the other vaults, but the way we get our overseers is from an election through high ranking workers. Including high ranking Officers,Engineers,Professors, and so on. an Overseer is a position that lasts a lifetime.

From what I can gather based on what I see. the two officers including myself are the most "experienced" in the force. In the vault we're always issued a 10m pistol, when on patrols and such, but we hardly ever use them. The two officers including myself may be the only ones in the force that have ever fired upon a citizen, I remember months ago a citizen drunk out of his mind was going on a rampage and threatened to kill his wife. He forced me to pull out my gun and fire a shot into his leg before he ran to get a weapon of some sort.

Leo, one of the officers there, only fired a shot above a woman's head while she was high out of her prescription drugs, The woman took way more than needed from her prescription which is what caused her to try to charge Leo when he showed up to control the situation. Leo, I believe is the shortest man on the force, a slender 5'4.

Now Vance, the other officer, has a different story. Vance is a tall, muscular, ebony man who reaches the height of 6'5, making Leo look like a stick. Vance was called in as backup to control a small gang of troubling people who were robbing people of their ration coupons. One thing lead to another, and one of the gang members struck an officer unconscious with a chair leg, Vance didn't hesitate. He pulled out his 10m and shot the gang member in the head twice, and a few shots that missed the rest of the gang. The whole thing become a great controversy in the vault, but was soon forgotten.

"I called you all here because you're the best our security force has to offer. And for a situation this big, I'm unsure if its enough..."

Woah, it's that big huh? My heart beated a bit faster. This isn't a drill of any kind.

"...We've been intercepting transmissions from... Out there... and it looks like it wasnt try to contact me, but someone in particular inside our vault."

This was big news. _VERY_ big news. So is there life out there after all? does civilization out there still exist? Are they even good willed? We all kept straight faces and continued listening to the Overseer.

"...Someone in our vault is contacting the outside world...and I want that to Stop."

We nodded.

" I believe our top engineer, Hark, may have something to do with this."

"What will you have us do?" asked Vance.

"I am authorizing all of you to raid Hark's work station, find evidence that he has made contact with the outside world, then _kill him_"

I gulped, and trembled a bit. but I said "understood" in the toughest voice I could do. Leo just stayed silent.

"The Armory is open to you men, take what is needed because I believed he may be armed."

Before we go any further, I want to explain something that every vault resident has. Its called a 'PipBoy 3000' A little computer attached to your wrist. The features on it are pretty useful, it has a virtual mapmaker, a small radar that can detect people around and even tell if they were hostile or not by indicating a red dot, and its even a radio that can pick up any frequency. I listen the vault's radio from time to time, but another feature the PipBoy has is a geiger counter, a sort of meter that tells you how much radiation you have absorbed and how much radiation is in the area around you. All of this.. The vault, the PipBoys, everything was made by a corporate company called Vault-Tech who made many inventions for the US.

Anyways let's get back to the good stuff shall we?

That evening, we were at the armory. I took up a 3rd grade bulletproof vest that might save my life if I shot in the chest with a shotgun. The 10m pistol as my sidearm along with a Remington combat shotgun, I was all set. Leo took up a 10m submachine gun with the same kind of armor as me, while Vance took a M4 Carbine with a laser sight.

Hark's workstation is a giant power room and likely had some people working for him so we had to take no chances for this operation. We were in position next to the entrance of the power room, the door was locked, Vance gave the signal, so I ran up to the door and shot at the door hinges.

Leo raced into the room and took cover behind a console from within where he was met with an engineer wielding a lead pipe charging at him. Instead of firing at him, Leo was quick and grappled the aggressor, disarmed him, and threw his head to the console where he fell unconscious. Vance and I moved in.

"Vault Security! Come out with your hands up!" Vance yelled, suddenly another engineer ran up to us with a revolver, but before he could raise his gun, Vance shot him twice in the chest. Wow, I do not hear that sound enough. two things were happening to me, the loud buzzing sound in my ears from the noise of the rifle and me attempting to swallow a bit a puke i made after seeing Vance kill someone. I was half panicking at this point, but I kept my shotgun close and pressed on along with Leo and Vance. These engineers are clearly working for Hark, why else would they attack us in his workstation?

We went up the stairs into a control room where we meet with Hark and another engineer.I shot the engineer in the kneecap right before he reached for a gun, then kicked his head in knocking him out cold. Leo quickly tackled Hark to the ground and grappled him into a hold he can't escape, Me and Vance looked into the control pad and his personal terminal to find any evidence.

"Heh, you wont find nothing here, it's all gone." said Hark. Vance quickly turned around and begins to interrogate him.

"Who were you talking to out there?" He said quite loudly.

"Bite my ass. man" Hark said in spite.

Vance quickly loses patience and punches Hark across the face, I was still on the control pad looking for any sort of evidence..

"Keep going, It's what the Overseer wants isn't it? To keep us locked up in here while he still has control over us?"

"Don't make me ask again asshole, who did you contact?!" I noticed something in the control panel... Power from the water filtration and food production units are suddenly being depleted.

"Our future... I contacted our future.. and they know where we are.. it won't be long.."

"Wont be long for what?!" Vanced yelled

Hark just laughed, "Until they get here, and liberate us all!"

"I've heard enough." said Vance, Leo released Hark, Vance aimed his rifle at Hark's head and fired.

Thank god I was looking at the control pad, I would have vomited from the amount of blood, skull and brain matter spread around the room. But I was busy looking at a specific power unit, and a specific security camera...

"uhh...guys?" I said awkwardly. When they came up to me I pointed at the power units.

"The power from water filtration and food production is being transferred into a different source."

"That, can't be possible...those units have power 24/7" said Leo

"Where is the power going to?" asked Vance.

The unit labeled 'Vault Entrance' is powered for the first time in centuries. I pointed at the security monitor and changed to the channel where it was looking at the vault door...

"My God.." Leo said.

Hark transferred power from filtration and food production to the Vault entrance, meaning someone from the outside can open the vault.. The great vault door was **_Opening_**...

_My name is Ken Mierson, and this is not an average day in Vault Omega 26_


	3. Chapter 2

**Home Invasion**

_Doesn't the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self defence, anything goes._

_-Imelda Marcos_

My god... It's actually opening, but there was no controls to the vault entrance on this console. It must have been opened from the outside! We could hear the loud screechy sound of the door being opened through the video feed, rotating like a disc to reveal a dark figure. The dark figure approached the vault, along with another, and another... And another. The vault's lights show the dark figures were in fact men, wearing various equipment. They seemed equipped with some kind of leather armor, dirty t-shirts and shin guards, but what scared me the most was the fact that they were armed with weapons.

They all wore something that stood out from their equipment however. They wore red armbands with two diagonal bars pointing right. It stood out because it looked much _cleaner_ than their overall outfits.

Their weapons looked like they were in pretty bad condition, like they were used a lot. My heart started to beat faster, this can't be happening.. it's just a dream. I looked to my fellow officers, they're just as shocked as I am, their mouths wide open in shock.

"W-We need to tell the overseer about his!" said Leo. Suddenly the Vault alarm sets off, its only used when a big threat is in the vault. "I'm pretty sure he knows already" I said.

I looked at the monitor, I counted 27 armed men, weapons raised, moving into the vault. "Alright.. I count 27 of em, vault security outnumbers them 4 to 1. Lets call in everyone, armor up and confront them." I said.

"Keep in mind. We're the only officers in the force that has ever shot anyone before, these men... Look at them. Scars all around their faces, rusty weapons...Hell, I bet they even know that they're outnumbered, these men will be hard to beat.

Vance had a good point. I worry now that our force will be intimidated by the invaders.

"Let's stick with your plan though, we gotta do everything we can to protect this vault." Vance said.

We ran to the vault armory, along the way the overseer made an announcement on the PA system, telling everyone to stay in their rooms, and security to the armory. There we met up with the rest of the security force, most of them were trembling out of fear. I picked up a few more shells, and help organize our force into squads that will move in to meet the invaders. I met up with Liam, who was trying to calm an officer down before he had a panic attack.

"Ken! What the fuck man, is this shit really happening?" he said.

"I'm freaked out too, but it looks like they're not here on a diplomatic mission. Look, I need to trust you to lead a group of the force in there with my group, can you handle that?"

Liam nodded his head.

Vance was leading his group in front of us, my group behind him, and Leo was behind me. I couldn't tell much what was going on in the front. suddenly I heard some yelling then a loud bang echoed. I saw a officer fell to the ground as the bullet ran right through his helmet.

The image of gorey bits oozing out of the helmet sickened me, I froze up for a moment. I wanted to puke, but the loud bangs of gunfire snapped me out of it.

I signaled my group to move up, I take my aim and fired at the gunmen. I commence coverfire while Vance usually gives the fatal shot with his carbine.

I moved up for better cover, but while doing so I saw a metal object being thrown into the air by one of the invaders. A can? I thought. I was wondering what it was while I move into cover,

It landed near a group of officers when suddenly a giant spark of fire and shrapnel ignited. I fell to the ground because of the shockwave, a long beep sound bursted into my ears, I was hunched over covering my ears. As I recovered I saw the group of officers were now shredded by the shrapnel,

The firefight was going on to 10 minutes, and I see more and more officers falling while the invaders were still 20 strong. One of them charged toward the gunfire and turned to me, he used the butt of his gun to hit the side of my head.

I fell to the ground. But quickly recovered. I stood up, and caught the gun before we would bash my head another time, he looked big, before he could overpower me I elbowed his face and took the gun from him. I tried aiming the gun at him but then he just shoved me to the ground, making me drop his gun. As he went to pick up his gun I noticed my shotgun was right next to me, I quickly picked it up and fired directly at his face, which inaugurated an eruption of blood and brain matter to splatter all over himself and my face.

I didn't react, I was having too much adrenaline, I continued firing at them. About a half hour into the fight we seemed to be winning, as they were getting few in number. Soon they backed off, and ultimately we chased them away from our vault, We saw from the outside of the vault door was a dark cavern but I saw a dim light further down the cave. The overseer must have been working on overriding the damage Hark has done, because now the vault door began to close again. The invaders ran away as the door finally closed up.

_ Woah, puking now_. well, I guess thats how my body reacts to victory. I was so pumped up in the moment, I didn't realized I've killed several men.

I never killed anyone in my life, and I never thought that I would need to. This should never have happened, What was going on in Hark's mind that led him to give outsiders access to our home? My hand's were shaking, I dropped my shotgun. I can never look at my hands the same way again.

I'm sure much of the force feels the same. I did a check on my group and the rest of the force. Leo is shot twice in the chest but nothing vital was hit. Vance's arm was hit and Liam had a knife wound across the left side cheek to his lower lip. I didn't noticed that I was covered in blood, most of it not being mine. I was virtually untouched.

Soon the medics came to fix up the wounded, which is nearly everyone, and to pick up the dead, which... Was almost everyone. Our hundred twenty strong force was taken down to a weakened forty by a 27 man assault, all in less than a hour. I walked to Liam, who is currently being stitched up by a medic. "How you holding up man?" I said. A stupid question if you ask me.

"Ith thith ahmph doin okehp"

"What?" I said.

"Oh, I had to numb his face in order to stitch his wound, he won't be able to talk for a while" said the medic next to him.

"Oh alright...I didn't think this had to happen. Look at this... A massacre."

Liam stretched out his hand and grabbed me by the arm.

"Heth manh, wef protehte ourh herm."

He sounded incomprehensible but I knew what he meant.

Liam gave me a half smile (because the other half was very numb) and gave me a thumbs up. Despite all the horror that's happened today that guy is still smiling. Liam is the kind of man that doesn't let something like this corrupt his heart. I wish I had that ability.

"I'm gonna check up on other things, I'll talk to you later" I walked off toward Vance.

...

"Leo's busted up pretty bad. Nothing important was hit but he lost a lot of blood." said vance.

"Leo may not look it, but he's a tough guy. I'm certain he'll pull through." I assured Vance. "I'm going to see the Overseer, I'll check up on you later."

Vance gave me a nod then looked to his medic who was stitching up his arm after removing a bullet that was fixed inside it. Before I went to see the overseer I walked to the infirmary, opened the doors.._nope_.

Turned right out in a instant. I saw enough. The infirmary was... occupied quite a bit. instead I went to my room. In the bathroom, I took off my Vest to find 2 bullets stuck within the chest area. Closer inspection on the bullets show that they were the same kind of bullets we use, 10 millimeter. The bullets that went straight through Leo's vest may have been something of high caliber,

All over the collar of my once clean shirt is drenched in blood that isn't mine. I took it off and threw it away. I looked at myself in the mirror. My slightly built body also had stains of blood, it must have soaked through the shirt. I also noticed that my black hair had taken stains of of the red liquid... I wanted to curl up and vomit again but my stomach had everything evacuated long ago...

Jesus, I couldn't look at myself much longer. I threw some water from the sink to my face and rinsed all the blood away. Afterwards, I went to the shower and try to keep my mind sane..

I put on a new uniform, and head towards the Overseers' office. As I walked into the office, I saw him scuffling over papers. I gave him a salute, "I was expecting you Meirson, please take a seat we have something to discuss about." He then stands up from his desk, walks to a console across the room and types in something that made the security cameras in the room that were glowing a red light turn off.

_"We... Have a bad...very bad. Problem."_


	4. Chapter 3

**_Out that Door_**

_"Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need". - Sarah Ban Breathnach_

This vault has been my home for 22 years of my span of life so far. It's all I ever known besides the recycled knowledge we have in school, the low hums that can be heard when in the lower levels of the vault; the painted murals across the hallways to make the vault not as depressing with its dull, gray, metal walls. Hardly anything is known that isn't in the vault, other than the fact that there is absolutely nothing outside of it, at least that's how we were taught. But today. Today... definitely proven that to be a lie.

Today will scar the vault forever, what the deeds that the security force had done will drive them to guilt, and worry just as I will. It's almost as if the vault was a child that knew so little, and when a bully took the child's toy away from him, the child was no longer an innocent youngling when he stood up and punched the bully's face. Things will never be the same, too much has changed already. Betrayal from the inside? Orders for assassination from the Overseer? Vault Invasion that killed more than half our force? All of this in a single fucking day.

In history class, they taught American history. Oh! How the American nation was the best damn nation in the whole goddamn world! The prosperity! the progress! the freedom! America was apparently on a fucking golden age before the war began. All history class is just American history and never taught us any history or even mention what the other countries were. I used to think that all that American greatness was going on right outside that vault door, and that we were missing out on it. Now I saw what is (or what it could be) out there, and I'm happy we never took part of it.

And now here we are. Year 22 of my life.

"I've been looking into both water filtration and food recycling facilities, something terrible has happened..."

Honestly, I keep thinking this is a dream. How worse can things get?

"Before the firefight you had with the invaders near the vault door, one of them snuck into water filtration and stolen a vital piece from the main hardware...He's stolen our vault's main WaterChip, without it... this vault can no longer filter our water."

Very worse.

"I'm going to hold an assembly later on to discuss what can be done about this, and I want you to be there."

I knew those invaders had a cause, they wouldn't just bust in here for no reason. They may have killed most of us but we did made a good number of them that forced them to pullback. They may have tricked Hark into helping them open the vault doors so that they can go for our water chip. These invaders looked, rather dirty and even unintelligent, they may have been brutes hired to steal the chip. That means there is definitely something or someone out there that knows we are here and wants that waterchip for themselves.

"I'll be at the assembly sir, I'd like to hear everyone else's input on this."

He nodded, we both stood up, I saluted and left the room.

...

We're all in the faculty hall near the overseer's office, various people of different occupations are here to discuss what to do about our current situation. Engineers, Teachers, Doctors, you name it. All of us gathered around a long table

Doctor Frollo, A scientist that looked into our water supply and core systems began to debrief the situation to the rest of this assembly.

"Now...I'm sure you're all wondering why you are all here, So I'll just get straight to the point. Before the massacre near the vault entrance, one of the intruders sneak into our maintenance shafts and made their way into the water filtration facilities. Now... while this was happening there was no power to the water facilities, meaning, the intruder must have been able or override the console settings and detached the WaterChip.."

"What does that mean?" an engineer said.

"It means this Vault can no longer produce fresh water."

After he said that, murmuring began to spread throughout the faculty hall.

"People please!" said the Overseer. "Let Doctor Frollo finish! he must have a solution!"

"Actually, ...It isn't... Look. I understand this may seem a big situation for everyone, but from now on this vault needs to have precautions. I looked into the integrity of the water supply we have, If we continue using water normally, we would run out of water in a few weeks. Unless we take on strict water restrictions, we can conserve our water to last us to about 3 months at best."

"Three months?!" someone yelled.

The murmurs became yelling, and panic streams all over. The Overseer attempts to calm the crowd.

"ORDER. I SAY ORDER"

It just goes on, and on... About half an hour into the conversation, the (newly made) head Engineer and several maintenance workers made a decision and stood up from the table.

"Overseer Sir, I think our best course of action is to combine work efforts to try to come up with a workaround system in order to get the water filtration facilities working again..However, It may take more than a few months..."

Now I know what you may be thinking, why isn't there some sort of procedure or a spare WaterChip in case the old one gets stolen or broken? Well, there never was a procedure and for 200 or so years we never thought of making one since we never encountered a situation like this before, but before the great vaults closed their doors there were rumours of vaults having spare WaterChips.

The Overseer nodded, "Contacting the_ other Vaults_ has proven useless. We lost contact with the Vault Network a long time ago."

_ Other Vaults..,_

"What is being discussed here, can not_ leave_ this room, I want this to be completely confidential. We don't want the vault to go into a panic now, do we?"

_ Leave..._

"We need a second plan, we can't simply depend on this one plan that may not be able to _save us_ in time. I don't suppose any of you have some Ideas?"

_ Save us..._

For 22 years This vault has been my home, and I was meant to die here. I was meant to serve many years of Security before I retire at a certain age. What do I have here, that makes these 22 years have good value? and the next 60 or so years worth living?

Have kids? Huh, maybe if I had a chance with a woman. It's not like that I'm unattractive or anything, (at least thats what I hope) but it's usually because I was such a nervous fuck when It comes to talking.

Family? All I got is my mom, and she's a drunk. She isn't that bad though, like she wouldn't hit me or nothing, she's sweet and kind. The alcohol doesn't make her angry or violent, she says it always helps her cope being single.

My dad? I never had a dad, ran off when I was born. When I was twelve I was told that he was dead, no funeral or nothing, straight to the incinerator. (That's what we do to dead bodies in our Vault) My mom says he killed himself...or fell down a flight of stairs... She always changes the story because she's always so drunk... poor mom.

If I suddenly went missing, my mom would just go into a drinking binge, which is what she does everyday.

Friends? HA! very funny Eh, I guess Liam is a friend of mine... My only friend, sorry. He was more of a big brother to me back in school, always watching over me. Sure he can be an ass sometimes, but for what he's done for me I learn to forgive and forget over time.

Liam is a different kind of guy though. One day when he saw my face bleed from a bunch of bullies in the school canteen all he did was smile. He didn't smile in the way that he's teasing me, but more in a 'It's gonna be alright buddy' way... Even though he just says "Get up you loser, I'll get 'em back later."

I have no talent, nothing about me makes me unique from others. A good shot? Like that's fucking useful in a Vault. Really... There isn't much of anything that's keeping me tied into this Vault.. this very Life. So why the fuck not?

"I have an idea to propose, sir" I said out loud.

The room, that was filled with arguing and panic, suddenly fell into silence for me to say something.

"Is that so Meirson? what do you propose?" said the Overseer.

I stood up from the table and began to say my plan out to this little assembly of panicking people.

"You said, that there were other vaults other than this one correct sir?"

"Yes..There is, I already confirmed that attempts to contact any other vault will not work."

"Of course, but what I propose is... "

I was shaking a bit at this point. Ah, shit. what am I doing?

"I-I Propose that, we need to locate another Vault, perhaps one that has a second WaterChip and retrieve it back here."

Everyone's eyes widened at what I said. The head engineer chuckled a bit and said

"You're...not insisting that we actually leave the vault and venture out there?"

I nodded at him, "You have your plan of making a work around system, but you can't guarantee that you will have it working within 3 months... I think it's a good idea to have this second plan. Say if one plan fails, there will still be hope for the other to succeed."

"But there is nothing out there but dirt and rock! what makes you think finding a WaterChip out there is even possible?! Let alone finding a vault!"

The Engineer had a point, what if it is total nothingness outside?

The Overseer stood up to add "Actually...I do have old map data of what our surroundings used to be, that includes other Vaults...Our Vault resides in the American State known as Massachusetts, There are several Vaults around the state that you can look for, the closest one is In a town called Worcester."

"Then that will be a place to start." I said.

"Despite the fact that the world may be blown to ash, There are Vaults out there which means they must have survived like we have. Are you sure you wish to go on such a dangerous journey?" he added.

I nodded.

"Then it's settled, Officer Meirson, assemble a team to embark on your mission."

"No. No teams, I can move faster If I'm on my own. And you need what remains of the security force here." I said.

A doctor spoke out "What makes you think you're qualified to survive out there?"

"I'm alive aren't I? I was in front of the massacre. The men that attacked us looked dirty but looked strong and even a little healthy, meaning survival out there won't be as impossible as you think." I said.

"Very well. Meirson, Take what you need from this vault, I'll upload the map data to your PipBoy." said the Overseer.

...

I wasn't going to say goodbye, I wasn't going to pray, neither did I plan on telling anyone else about this. With authorization from the Overseer, I gather what I needed. I did not want to switch out my Combat shotgun, It's kept me alive so far. I gathered ammo, food, water and a medkit all in my backpack. I take a look at my PipBoy, it showed that our Vault was near the outskirts of a small town called 'Barre'.

I walked along with two other officers (with heavy weapons) to the Vault entrance. The Overseer activated the Vault door manually, The Officers and I raised our weapons, hoping that the invaders were not there. when the door opened, it only showed a dark tunnel made of rock. I remember seeing a small light beaming at the end of the tunnel, but it is no longer there.

"Good luck, man"

"Godspeed, Meirson"

Was what the officers said to me, they took a few steps back.

I looked at the tunnel, the light gone. weapon in hand. I decided to take one last look at my home, turning my head, I saw the overseer. He gave me a salute then turned around to the leave the room. I faced the tunnel once again, I gulped and closed my eyes hard.

It only took a few steps, a few steps that will really take me farther from home than anything before. Being farthest from home. Took only a few steps. To leave my home, find the other vaults, and save the residence.

**_ Just a few steps, Out that door._**


	5. Chapter 4

_**One small step**_

_There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors._

_- Jim Morrison_

I already felt nauseous when I took the step that was outside the border of the Vault door. For a moment there, I thought my boots would melt. Soon enough, I took another step.. I clenched my combat shotgun harder. I began walking in a steady pace, slow, but the floor I was walking on was so uneven...The rock leveled up and down, it was not as flat as the vault's floors, and it was nothing like stairs.

Now a few yards into the tunnel. A loud screeching sound of metal made me jump, I turned around. I saw the Vault door rotating back into place, I see lights flashing as it fits into place and locks itself in. Now, I am definitely on my own.

I continued to walk, until I tripped over something and fell. I landed my face on something that wasn't rock. I quickly stood back up as soon as I realized that I tripped on a skeleton with faded clothing still on it. I wanted to vomit, But I've seen enough sickening scenes today. I pushed myself to continue walking.

As I continued walking down the tunnel, I saw a door of some sorts near the end. What It was made out of was strange to me, It looked like wood, only more rotten and moldy. I slowly brought out my hand to grab the handle, It was cold to the touch.

When I opened the door I looked out, now I was outside, It made me very dizzy. A vast amount of land can be seen past the horizon.

It was dark, not as dark as the cave though... Hm.. what's lighting this world? I looked up. stupidly expecting a very dim giant ceiling light.

I quickly fell and landed on my back. _THERE IS NO CEILING._ It was infinite! Looking at the sky made my head spin. So is this what sky is? A dark never ending ceiling riddled with puffy shapes that looks like something painted with watercolor? My eyes were spinning, but then I saw the light source.

it was magnificent compared to the puffy shapes, but from what I saw, it looked like it was far behind the shapes because it was slightly transparent. A giant circle of white, I can see shadows within it, and the light it created. Sooner or later, I remembered some classes about this thing, It's called the "moon" so that means it's "night" right now.

Oh of course it's night time! I took a look at my PipBoy, and it showed that it was 11pm. I switched the module on my PipBoy to "local maps" and it showed there was a small town near me called 'Barre', switching it to "World Map" showed a large amount of land but not the entire country (No clue why it'd be called world map then). It showed that much farther southeast of me is a much larger town called "Worcester" the town that the overseer says, held another Vault. Another reading showed an even larger town farthest to the east called "Boston" the Icon which indicates the town shows a Star, meaning it was the capital of this state.

I was on top a hill, took a look at my bearings and saw that there was nothing but rock, dirt, and dead trees. Looking to the South I saw several flat, burnt out buildings. perhaps looking in there wouldn't be a bad thing.

It took a while to get used to the new terrain I was walking on, I would trip over a rock every so often. Walking down a hill was nothing you would ever experience in a Vault. When I hit the bottom of the hill I saw a long road stretching out to the general direction where all the buildings where, it was mostly flat, so I figured it would be best to take the most comfortable route.I've never seen a vehicle in my life, but I did know what they were. They were a way to transport people and even items all around the country. Rows on Rows of vehicles lined up from where the street is to the main road heading southwest.

Looks like before the bombs fell, people were trying to get out of the cities.

When reaching the town, I realized something I should have known a few hours ago. I'm Tired. Today has been filled with so much violence and adrenalin, I didn't noticed my body was exhausted. I wished I realized this later, because now all I wanted to do was sleep.

The town was small, so hopefully there wouldn't be too many people around finding some loot. Looking over a row of houses, I chose the one that seemed most structurally sound and with the most cover, despite the fact that the windows are all blown off. The other houses seem to have giant gaping holes from the back and fronts of the houses.

As I walked toward the house I chosen, I looked at the street. The long rows of cars still stretched on, but I was starting at one vehicle in particular that stood out from the rest. From what I know of vehicles, some were created for war, some that fire bullets from a mounted machine gun, Some that carry dozens of soldiers into battle, but what intrigued me the most were the ones that fire giant bullets that create explosions when it hit the ground or it's target. I was staring straight at the cannon of a tank.

It was covered in moss, fungus, rust and had faded painting. Instead of heading into the house I chose, I walked closer to the tank to have a better look, the hatch door on top of the tank was unlocked. Putting my shotgun aside, I used both my hands to lift the rusty hatch open. A peek inside showed the tank unoccupied, empty. the tank already seemed to be looted, the turret basket was missing a mounted machine gun, and all the contents inside the containers were missing.

Well, after 200 years I'm sure that tank would have been looted eventually. but then again, you'd think society would be restored after 200 years... Right?

I went inside the house, I wanted to scout the entire building before deciding it was safe. Shotgun ready, I slowly walked into the house, past the front door is a set of stairs and doorways leading to other rooms. I peeked my head into a room showing a kitchen that very much resembles the ones in the Vault, only not destroyed,faded, and covered in moss. Checking all the cabinets and drawers, the kitchen has been completely looted, I then moved on to the living room. The room was missing just about everything,it was empty, but I took a close look to a burnt mark at the center. Someone must have made a camp here recently, this made me a bit nervous, it could have been the former camp of those invaders. I slowly walked up stairs, just as my head was reaching the second level I heard tiny footsteps that couldn't possibly be from a person.

Suddenly, a large shadowy figure jumped at my face with a loud screech. I fell on my ass as it hit it's head on the stair railing, It had a furry body with a naked face, It's glowing yellow eyes petrifying me. It squirmed around and then ran down the stairs past me. Was It scared of me more than I was scared of it? I beg to differ. Luckily I already vomited out everything in my stomach, otherwise I would have shitted my pants.

I recovered from the fright and continued upstairs, it showed a hallway that lead to three different rooms. one was a bathroom, and the other two bedrooms. Both bedrooms, by the looks were used as places for the invaders to rest, many empty bottles were scattered around and the burn mark of the campfire was still here.

Perhaps the invaders retreated elsewhere, and gathered what they got here in a hurry and left. There were some makeshift sleeping bags made of rags, blankets, and an old flattened pillow. Next to such beds was an unopened bottle of soda. I picked up the glass had black liquid inside, It read "Nuka-Cola". This surprised me, they also had this soda in the Vault and they tasted delicious! Licking my lips, I fought the urge of just downing this drink, and stored the drink in my single strap backpack.

I knew if I wanted to sleep in for the night, I needed to make a sound alarm somewhere, near the entrance of the stairs, I placed broken glass from the bottles all around, if anyone was coming upstairs they would make a lot of sound. Hopefully waking me up if I was sleeping. The bed was ripped up to bits, no place to sleep on it, so I took one of the sleeping bags. It looked relatively clean, so I covered myself in it and sat behind the bed, if someone would walk in the room, I would have the bed as cover. I looked under the bed, and found something oddly familiar. Just like the Nuka-Cola, this was something we had in the Vault, A digital tape recorder that usually holds messages in them. Usually in the Vault, when missing a lesson of school, a friend would be kind enough to record the lesson with such a tape. These tapes were called "Holotapes". The halo taped I held seemed in good condition, I played the tape and listened to the recording.

_"Just hold on a second...I said, to FUCKING HOLD ON. Christ, everyone's so timid now._

_When we get back to Tyrio, I'm demanding a better reward than just a few hundred caps, we lost a lot of fucking guys in that Vault cunts were more geared than we thought-Wha?...For fuck's sakes I'm coming!_

_What's important now is that we have the package Tryio's been wanting. I know we left some guys in that cave, If you find this tape, head to Jento's Rock. We're regrouping there before heading to Worcester._

_I know you guys prefer walking the '62 east of here, but stop being fucking lazy and walk through the forest. I don't want you fucking idiots run into a cavern or worse, a fucking patrol._

_ALRIGHT I'M COMING. We're moving out now, Hope to see ya guys in Jento's rock."_

The Holotape made a beeping noise, indicating that the recording was finished.

At first, a bit of worry rushed in my head, but I realized whoever that was left behind, may have already found this tape because the whole camp is empty. That and some items were tossed around the room, showing that they may have left in a hurry. There was plenty of evidence that they already got the message and left, even if they did came back, I have my sound alarm ready and cover behind a bed.

Was I already accustomed to this world? I've seen so much in one day, but something tells me, that I still have a lot more to see.


	6. Chapter 5

**A Loud Thump**

_" Make a habit of two things: to help; or to do no harm."_

_ - Hippocrates_

I never thought I'd ever sleep on the floor before, and I got to admit, it isn't as bad as it sounds. The sleeping bag wasn't as nice or soft and fluffy as a bed in the vault but it definitely let me have my few hours of sleep. I opened my eyes, and first thing I noticed was that the room was strangely... Alot brighter. I got up to my feet, and took a quick look into my bag.

Still have my inventory. medkits, water, food rations, ammunition, a spare white tee shirt and my newly found Nuka-Cola. Everything is in place. I walked out to the hallway, peeking my head out the door. The house seems clear, I walked to the bathroom of the house. A good crack seen from the bottom of the mirror straight to the top with it's veins spread around it, but I was still able to see my reflection with a good portion of the mirror that was undamaged.

My uniform was all covered in earth from the times I fell because of my clumsiness of this new terrain. I removed my vest, it too, was dirty. Turning the valves of the sink did no good giving me water, I pulled out my water and poured a bit into my cupped hand, and rinsed my face in it.

The whole house seemed brighter, I know it was day, but what made this so much brighter? Here I thought the moon was bright. In the vault, our lighting system gives us a "Day and Night" cycle. looking out the dirt stained window in the bathroom, showed rays of light. I shrugged off the thought, and began downstairs. I had to move the broken glass which caused a lot of noise, but I don't think anyone is around to notice. I searched the entire house one more time, under the fridge, I found what appears to be a magazine. It read _"Locksmith's reader"_ a quick skim of the book showed me a little baggie inside with a few paper clips and bobby pins; and that all of the pages were present with detailed diagrams of locks. This book may be useful, or at least something to read out of boredom, I stored the magazine into my pack and headed towards the front door.

Now everything was even brighter! as soon as I opened the door the rays of light became bigger and soon consumed the room around me and my eyes. I thought I went blind! I quickly turned away from the door, and shielded my eyes, pressing my eyelids with my fingers. I reopened my eyes, all I can see is blurriness, I kept on blinking until it wore off.

After I recovered from the temporary blindness. I looked towards the door, with one hand, I cupped my forehead to shield my eyes of this unbearable light. I took a few steps outside, the blurriness came back, but after a while it began to fade and my eyes began to focus again.

I took a look at my Pipboy, it's about 9am in the morning. So this is what morning was? I thought the morning light in the Vault was bright, but this? This is intense! Now that my eyes were adjusted, I took a look around my surroundings. Everything was much more clearer to see now, I can now see from a farther distance. I looked up once again noticing that the dark blue sky has now turned into a new livid color. The yellowish clouds still covered much of the sky. Suddenly my eyes began to flinch again from a great brightness, I found the light's source. From that glimpse moment I stared at it, it was like the moon! only not like a rock in the sky, but more like a constant spark.

I took my mind off the spark, and walked down the road heading south. After a while I saw what appeared to be the town (more like village) centre. It was a few roads intersecting with a parking lot for a cluster of buildings including a town hall, a few stores and restaurants. I stopped by the town hall for a quick snack. I opened my backpack, grabbed a granola bar and began to get a few bites of it with a few sips of water.

I wouldn't say my belly was full after this meal, but it was enough to get me through the day. I brought enough food with me to last about 2 weeks. Sooner or later I'm going to have to find a food source in order to survive.

Most of the building's were boarded up with wooden planks and other garbage, so searching those buildings are a no go. The map on my PipBoy showed that the town of Barre had several routes going in different directions. A route going southeast heads directly toward worcester, route 122 was what it was called.

While I was walking southeast I noticed there were more tanks, some of them were blown to large metal chunks. Hmm. That meant before the bombs fell, there was actual ground war that happened here. The tanks were so faded and rusty, I couldn't tell what tanks were enemies or not. All insignias and painted flags are all faded away. One of the tanks looked like it was rammed into a shop, it left me an open entrance to the building.

The building was small, a room with a counter and a back room. Oh and a tank. Whatever that was in the room is now destroyed because of this tank, that didn't stop me from looking around. I looked behind the counter, empty, I walked to a corridor behind the counter that leads to another door. I tried opening the door but it was locked, I was certain this was the back room. For a moment, I struggled with the door, trying to kick it down and considering to simply shoot the door lock with my shotgun, but then I realized something. The door's lock looked very similar to the ones in the Locksmith's Reader magazine.

I sat down, and began reading the magazine._ "The pin-and-tumbler lock consists of a cylinder that can rotate within its housing (see the illustrations below). When locked, the cylinder is kept in place by several pairs of pins."_ I began to understand how the locks work. In order to unlock it, I need to use my bobby pin to push up specific pins, while using a paper clip like a wrench to turn the cylinder in order to unlock it.

The whole process required patience, luckily the little baggie inside that magazine supplied me with about 20 bobby pins and 3 paper clips. I did in fact made mistakes, I broken at least 4 different bobby pins before I finally got that glorious clicking noise given to me by the lock. I opened the door to see if the whole act was worth it. The back room revealed itself as a storage room, the shelves had several boxes and cans of different food. Oh god. was this the "food source" I need to rely on to survive? It may as well be. I took a look at the canned foods, they had canned peaches, pineapples, tomato paste, and green peas. I took several cans, but I didn't want too many that it will slow me down. I now had 4 weeks worth of food if I rationed it carefully, or have 3 meals a day for 3 weeks. I was half excited about the canned meals I found, expecting it to be rather nasty, but knowing it will be life sustaining. I left all the boxed foods alone.

The room had many shelves, but one of them was moved out of place. A closer look showed there was a safe hidden behind it. I pushed the shelf away to better show the safe, It had the same kind of lock as the door. Surely because it's a safe, this would be harder, but I am determined to unlock this safe. I might have spent little over an hour on this lock, but after 4 broken pins I finally heard that click sound again.

I opened the safe and long and behold, the reward isn't food! Inside it had a brown leather box and a holotape with a recorded message.

_"Hey S. I know you don't believe in violence, but that shit is gonna bite you in the ass if you don't carry one of these around. Everything is going to shit man, and it isn't going away._

_You heard what happened in Los Angeles?_

_The MPs fucking shot up everyone in that protest to bits! I bet the same fucking deal is gonna happen in Boston, and when it does, everyone will be leaving the state. More people will be driving this way, what does that mean?_

_More business? Fuck no, anarchy will tear this place apart. Shit will go down and I want you to run away with this, keep your wife and kids safe and get the fuck out of here while you still can."_

What the hell was happening around here? I wished I could know more. I installed the Holotape data into my PipBoy incase I wanted to hear it again. I picked up the box and opened it. Inside was a stack of paper currency that looked very similar to our ration credits in the Vault, I assumed this was money for this world so I stored it into my bag.

So this is what that holotape recorder wanted to give. A clean, unused pistol of some kind. It looked quite different from my 10 millimeter pistol. It isn't as bulky, and it's Iron sights were glowing green. I picked up the pistol, it was very much lighter than the 10m. I took a look at the slugs, the bullets were different. The slugs read "9 millimeter" meaning it used a different kind of ammo. I stored the gun into my bag along with the slugs of ammo it came, should I run out of ammo for my 10m pistol or should it break apart, it'll be good to have a back up.

It was around midday when I left the store, I walked southeast to the route 122. According to the PipBoy, this route will take me directly to Worcester. This is good. This isn't hard yet, no obstacles in my way yet. It's nothing but me, a giant column of cars going forever, and a path to worcester.

There was no point in looking into the cars, they're all burnt to a crisp and were probably looted many times upside down.

After walking for about an hour, I saw a few figures in a distance. When I got a little closer, it was people! I counted four of them, three of them were armed and there was a fifth figure... It looked very strange, it had... Four legs? It's color had an orange tint and it had chests, and boxes tied on it's back.

Seeing them with weapons made me alert and nervous. I pulled my shotgun from my back and continued to walk toward the group, if they would shoot me, I will run to cover behind the cars. We were no more than a hundred yards from each other, they still had their weapons drawn, I was thinking about just stopping and wait for them to come for me. Suddenly I heard something loud, followed by a piercing pain in my ass.

_** BANG!**_

I quickly fell forward, wincing at the pain I was just given._ I just got shot in the ass!_ I screamed out in pain, the bullet went straight through the left side of my ass out my right thigh. I don't think anything bad was hit, I tried moving myself to cover, then that sound came again.

**_ BANG!_**

Cover was no longer on my mind, only pain and blood. I screamed out even louder, a bullet pierced my side. I quickly crawled beside an overturned car and tried to sit up.I couldn't move anywhere else now, I'm a sitting duck here. So much was going through my mind but was all ignored, instead my mind focused on the amount of blood I was losing and deciding whether my side or ass hurts more. I heard yelling and footsteps running. I'm done. I failed... What a shitty end huh? Not a full day after leaving my home and already got a bullet through my ass and side, bleeding out with more men with guns running for me.

_ Everything is... Going dark now...What's going on? I heard muffled yelling_

"NAGE! What have you done!?

I lost so much blood and began to feel very woozy, I slowly leaned to the side...

_ Then I went deaf, soon after I went blind... and finally I went to sleep._

**Thump.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Recoil**

_"We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death." - Nathaniel Hawthorne_

So if this is what heaven, hell, or limbo looks like. _It's Bullshit!_ Absolutely no feature at all! It's all pitch black! I understand, that there is different beliefs of what happens after you die, (or at least there used to be) but this does not fit any description to_ ANY_ of such beliefs. Am I supposed to look and listen to total nothingness forever?!

I'm quite certain I'm dead, I feel nothing at all. I never really attended to the Vault's church very often, but come on. I died trying to save the people in my Vault, don't I get something a little better than total nothingness?! I felt ripped off... Like I just suckered into a cheating bargain...Wait..._I felt?_

Oh boy. What's going on now? Hey is that pain? I missed that fella..._Ow_... Not so much anymore. Suddenly the total nothingness became a light, the light showed colors, then it showed figures, then it became blurriness. I soon heard muffled words become more clear. A voice I heard sounded old and tired, but bold and ardent. I raised my head and my body to see the owner of that voice.

"Easy! Easy now! Just relax boy, keep your head down."

He gently pushed my head down on a soft cushion with his wrinkly hands. I grunted as I felt a spear of pain hit the left side of my body. I opened my eyes again, seeing an old man finishing some stitches on my side.

"Heh heh, you know this ain't as bad as stitching your ass"

I thought this man was going to kill me, why did he save me? My ass feels numb...

"Your ass was at least easier, the bullet came right out your leg. The second bullet was wedged into your flesh. This vest of your's saved your life, it slowed down the bullet before it hit your lung."

Well, I am at least grateful for his deed, I wish i could speak but I was too busy wincing at the pain I was getting from my side. He left my side walking to a different direction, I turned my head around. The sun was nearly gone, I could partially see it on the horizon. We were camped several yards away from the road, but I wasn't sure if we were at the same area where I went unconscious.

The old man came back with a small white bottle container in his hand.

"Here son, take some of these. This will ease the pain for you, open up"

I hesitated, but I opened my mouth for him to put 2 white capsules. I swallowed them, and in several seconds I felt...Really good actually. I feel great! I tried to pulling myself up, then somehow forgotten that my thigh was damaged, and quickly fell. The old man caught me before I could fall, he seems really strong carrying almost my whole weight for an old man.

"Heh heh, don't get too ahead of yourself boy. Here, why don't you just try to set up first."

He placed me next to a large boulder, to which I sat up next to.

"Those meds really help huh, can you talk?" he said.

I opened my mouth to speak.

"Yeah... I can, thanks."

"How are you feeling?" he said.

"Very numb, though I can still feel pain on my side. It stings bad..."

"Well, you're just gonna have to tolerate it, I can't give you more of those meds I gave. you'll get hooked on 'em too easily."

"What kind of meds are those?"

He showed me the white container "What? These? They're UltraStims. You... Never heard of them?

I nodded my head.

"You weren't out that Vault that long haven't you? I noticed your jumpsuit has those Iconic yellow font numbers. I haven't seen a Dweller in years." he said.

"There were others?" I said, astonishingly.

"Several, from what I hear. In my younger years, I met a Dweller that traveled here from way up north, we teamed up for a while. He saved my skin more times than I could count."

"I asked him once, why couldn't he just go home. He told me that he was exiled from his Vault." He continued.

_ Exiled?_

"Why was he exiled?" I asked

"He never told me about that, He never really told much about himself other than he was from a vault and exiled."

In my Vault, we have a Jail that holds anyone who disturbs the peace, but we would never cast anyone out no matter how much of a danger they are. I thought this was standard to every Vault, why would that Vault cast out a resident?

Later, a man carrying a long rifle with a scope behind his back emerged from the dark, dead forest. A caucasian man wearing rugged pants and a leather jacket with only one sleeve in place. The jacket he wore looked very modified, it was padded with metal bits and had a pauldron covering the left side of his shoulder.

When he saw me, he stopped on his tracks for a second, then continued to walk toward the camp.

"I think we're in the clear, the rest of the guys are doing another patrol around perimeter." he said.

"That's good to know, our guest has waken up if you haven't noticed" said the old man.

The armored man looked very fit, he had brown reddish hair, and carried another kind of pistol I never seen in his holster. Judging by the size of the rifle he's carrying, it looks like it was meant for long range.

"Are you the one that shot me?" I asked him, I didn't want to tick him off, but seeing as this whole thing was some sort of accident I don't think he would be hostile to me unless I proved a threat.

He sat down and began rubbing his legs and let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, I shot you. When Jas called out to me that you weren't a raider, I knew I fucked up there. Sorry about that."

"Your method of shooting people before finding out if they're a danger is going to give our merchant caravan a bad name, Nage." said the old man.

"Hey! he was staring down you guys, and had his shotgun drawn out. I figured he was a threat." he argued.

"In any case, I think we're lucky we haven't run into a band of raiders. I'm sorry for shooting you. I'll make up for it." he continued.

In my mind, I accepted his apology, but kept silent for a moment. If he now owes me, I wonder how far will he be willing to go to pay for his accident? I wanted to change the subject.

"Who's Jas?" I asked

"That ought to be me." Said the old man.

"And you?" I asked the armored man.

"Name's Nage." he answered. "And who are you?" he then asked.

Nage and Jas seemed like odd names to me, I guess names up here in the surface aren't as recycled as they are in the Vault.

"Ken" I simply said.

"When I took a look at you a while ago, I noticed that jumpsuit you're wearing and that computer thing on your wrist. You're from one of them Vaults aren't you?"

I hesitated at first, be it seemed obvious I was from a Vault, the jumpsuit and whatnot.

"Y-Yeah... I came from one of those vaults, I've only been out for a day and I'm already quite injured."

Nage chuckled a bit, "Wow, you must have quite a day huh? So why did you leave the Vault? Got exiled like they did to Jas's Vault buddy?"

"N-No, the vault had some... Internal issues, and I simply had to leave a-and-." I said.

"No need to tell me any further, I ain't interrogating you here." he said.

A moment later a wandering question came to my head. "Are there many people out here? In this world, I mean" I asked.

"Hmph, too many people if you ask me." Said Nage.

"Yeah there are quite a number of people still living up here, however a majority of them are hostile and murderous. Don't let that bring you down though... There are several settlements throughout the wasteland that are friendly, whether for caps or simply for a good face." said Jas. He then stood up from the camp fire, stretched his arms out and let out a good yawn.

"This old sack of meat is worn out. I'm headin' to bed, Nage keep first watch." Jas then walked toward a tent and went inside to sleep.

"Caps?" I asked.

"We can explain that tomorrow, You should be getting some rest too." said Nage. He went over to me and pulled my left arm over his shoulder, helping me get to a tent. He suddenly let out a little chuckle.

"You know... You're lucky to be alive, something about you is different" he said.

I was rather, freaked out by this. "What?" was the only response I gave.

"A totally still target, with not just one but two shots, and you're alive. One of those bullets should have hit your heart..."

We entered the tent and helped me lie down on my makeshift bedding, but before he left the tent he said.

**_..And I never miss._**


	8. Chapter 7

_**Bad Thoughts**_

_"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"_

_- John Lennon_

_ Three months..._

_ The amount of time I had was only three months._

_ Granted, should I even _**_survive_**_ this hell._

_ What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I thought "Why the fuck not"_

_ I was signing my death warrant. I'm not cut out for this as I thought I did, what if I fail?_

_ No.. I _**_will_**_ fail._

_ Did I really believe I was _**_brave_**_ enough_****_for a mission like this? I'm scared __shitless__! I was brave only for the moment... I __can't__ be brave for a world like this. People like Vance can..._

_ Just after three days, and I'm already pretty injured. Imagine spending 3 months out here. I'm not used to this fucking world like __Nage__ and __Jas__ are._

_ How do I even know if __they're__ really helping me? If those invaders wanted to get in our vault... who knows if there are other people who do?!_

_ I'm not going to live these three months...and when the work around system fails, the whole Vault will panic._

_ Everyone WILL DIE of thirst, or even worse... Sooner or later the Overseer may send people out again, and when they do, what if those invaders return?!_

_ What a horrible image... Those invaders coming back, just slaughtering everyone in the vault.._

_ The remaining security force __won't__ stand a chance, and what am I doing to prevent it? Absolutely nothing!_

With a gasp, my head rose up with quick speed. The piercing pain of the gunshot wound has returned to my side and ass. The pain wasn't as bad as how I felt before I took the drug that really eased all of it, I was able to bear with the pain and tried to stand up. As I stumbled out the tent, I quickly lost balance and started to fall. Before I hit the ground though, Nage grabbed me by my shoulder and placed my arm around his neck.

"Woah there tough guy! Forgot you got shot in the leg? Take it easy."

Nage walked me over to the now smouldering campfire. He placed me on a log and patted my back.

"Let me get you something so you can walk easier."

_Huh, that was awfully nice of him_. I rolled up my pants to see the exit wound I had on my leg. The bullet must have teared through a muscle tendon, which may explain why I couldn't walk.

Nage came back with two wooden objects which looked very similar to a crutch only instead of plastic and metal like in the Vault, it's made of wood.

"Put your arms on these, get some weight off of that leg." said Nage.

I did as he said, getting the weight off of my leg helped alot. These wooden crutches became my new leg until my old one has healed.

"We're gonna be moving out soon, go meet up with Jas down at the road. I'll pack up your tent." he then walked to my tent and began packing it together.

The crutch really did help, instead of stumbling around the place, I can walk more properly and without chance of falling. As I walked down the hill I saw the rest of the group getting ready to leave, I saw Jas walk up to... _wait, what exactly is that?_

"Oh hey, kid. Your leg treating you fine?" Jas asked, as I walked closer to him and this.. thing.

"Wh-Wha-What is that thing!" I exclaimed, whatever it was it had four legs and two heads! It suddenly gave out a loud Mooing sound, I jumped and nearly fell out of my crutches

"You never seen one of these before?" He asked me, I nodded no while still staring at the creature.

Jas began to chuckle and explained to me. "Well, this here is a mutated animal from before the war, they survived somehow and grew a second head. Dunno what they were called back then, some guy with a book decades ago suggested that they were called 'Bovine', so thats what we call 'em."

"They make great haulers for bringing goods in caravans and traders, also good for food too." I was shocked at what he said at the end there.

"Y-You eat them!?" I yelled. "Oh yeah, they're a lot better than two hundred year old canned tomatoes if you ask me"

I just stood there staring at the animal, one of the heads was eating something while the other was giving me a glare that reached into my soul.

"Alright!" Yelled out Nage coming from the dead forest, followed by other armed men.

"Let's get a move on, we'll reach Tersha in two hours tops!" Everyone then began to walk up the highway heading northwards according to the PipBoy. I took a look at my PipBoy, I found that that we are actually much farther up the 122 route. Farther away from my intended destination.

"Hey, weren't we much farther down the highway?" I asked to Jas, but before he could answer, Nage stepped up next to me and began to explain.

"You see Kim, when we picked you up, you were heading south. Which is the complete opposite of where we were trying to go, we couldn't just leave you there, so we took you with us farther north."

"It's Ken." I corrected him. "Oh, sorry. Well, you didn't want to go south anyways." he said. I didn't want to go? "Why not?" I asked

"Look around you, wonder why we got so many guards? We went to Paxton, a town near Worcester. There and all around is nothing but war zone, but that usually calls for a demand in war needs right? we're the only caravan that gets to the outskirts of Paxton and sell our goods there, dangerous work, but the rewards is really high."

"Why exactly is it a war zone?" I asked. Nage paused for a moment, he opened his mouth to answer but then Jas, retaliating his interruption earlier, then began to answer my question for him.

"There are a lot of reasons, but the main one is because of the Order. Lately, they've been sending more troops there, trying to claim the area. "

"The Order?" I asked

"Oh right, you haven't heard of them. They're some kind of faction that's risen way down south. As far as Washington from what I hear. They're called the Revos Order, they have patrols keeping this highway safe from deadly critters and bandits. Now doing such things ain't for charity, In exchange for protection and helping out towns, The Order demands the towns they aid to be annexed by their growing 'society' of theirs." said Jas.

"They're a bunch of egotistical assholes is what they are, thinking they're a superior people or something." protested Nage.

"If it wasn't for the Order, towns like Tersha would be chewed up by raiders and bandits." said Jas.

I wasn't exactly following everything Jas and Nage were saying, we continued to walk up the highway.

As we continued, we discussed more about what things I should know about this world. 'Caps' are infact the bottle caps from drinks like Nuka Cola, apparently they're used as a currency in this region because of how the technology to manufacture them and paint their surfaces had been mostly lost, which limited any counterfeiting efforts. It is also backed by the value of water.

'Tersha' is a town farther up in the route, according to my Pipboy, the town up the road is actually called Petersham. I edited the name to Tersha since now I'm assuming that town will be called by that name instead of Petersham.

"Tersha is actually where our caravan is posted, we're an outfit for a caravan company called '_Jow's__ water 'n trade.'_ While we made the transactions, they given us some security, extra security for places like Paxton." said Jas.

We walked along the road up to Tersha where, Instead of more houses, a long wall of rusty metal, cars and tanks were lined up to create a perimeter. These people must have access to some welding tools, the metal has been fused together to keep the wall stable and strong.

A notable feature of the town is the massive pole riddled with metal. It looks as though it was meant to be a hoist, moving a boxcar from the ground to a makeshift tower (also made of rusty metal). "Impressive piece of shit ain't it?" said Nage.

"Now, people are gonna look at you funny because of that there Vault Jumpsuit. So uhh, don't look at them straight in the eye." said Jas. I nodded and I continued to follow them into the town.

The entrance was just an open gateway, the tower overseeing everything and two armed guards at the front of the gate. "Wait here." said Nage. "I'll get us in". He then walked to the guards, after a short conversation he pulled out a piece of paper. After they read it, they returned it to him and signaled us to pass.

While we were walking through, one of the guards looked at me and yelled out to Nage. "Wait a minute, who is this one? He isn't part of your charter." I froze still, Nage walked back and explained. "We found him hurt out there, we were just gonna take him to see the Doc is all." the guard then took another look at me, "Stay out of trouble." I was still pretty frozen, Nage came and motioned me to walk away.

Immediately I can already see the activity of the town, the main 'street' of the town was bustling with human life. I could hear many merchants and buyers arguing and advertising over goods, it was nothing like I ever seen before.**"Only 60 caps for!-"** **"****You're**** nothing out there without a gun! ****ger**** cheap guns at-"** **"Hungry? Get the finest bovine steak in the Wasteland!**" . It's gotten me quite excited, then I realized that caps where the currency, and that I had absolute zero.

"We'll need to stop by the caravan post first. After we collect our payment, we'll take ya to see the Doc." said Nage

Most of the buildings in the town were built off of the buildings that were once standing. However modifications were obviously made to the buildings, large vehicles and train box cars were added on top of such foundations. One of these buildings was a tall building reinforced with linked fence, and had pens around it holding more of these "Bovine" creatures.

The building had a large piece of plywood that had painted words that say "Jow's Water 'n Trade". Nage, Jas and I walked into the building, while the rest of the group went behind the building to unload the Bovine. Immediately we saw a counter as we walked in, there a man with glasses was reading several pages of paper. I could hear clicking of a typewriter in the room in the back somewhere, in the vault's history book of technology, they were used to type documents back in the day. The Vault however, uses terminals to type documents and then print them out after it was finished.

As we walked up to the counter, the clerk was still reading his documents, Nage then knocked on the counter to get his attention. The clerk jumped and looked at Nage. "Jesus Christ I was right to flinch, I'm looking at fucking _ghosts_" he said after giving out a loud sigh. "In the flesh. Made quite the profit today." said Nage, he then passed over a large sack that made metallic noises, I assumed it was full of caps.

" I still can't comprehend that you guys are still alive, 6th trip to Paxton and you're still breathing air. Alright let me get you your cut." said the clerk, he pushed up his glasses and began dividing up the caps. The clerk glanced up and saw me, he glared at me for a moment and went back to his caps. Nage leaned more into the counter in a intimidating motion and began to half-whisper to the clerk. "Uhm.. Listen, I'm going to need a loan off of you." is what he asked. "What?!" the clerk protested. "Nage, not again! I'm not trying to get my ass fired here!" he said.

"I payed back the last loan, and I don't even want a large one right now. Just enough." Nage said. "I lost quite a few men for this caravan, I think I deserve a little more reward." Nage continued. "Christ, Nage. I can't keep doing this." said the clerk. "You won't have to, This is the last time. I think I'm done in the caravan business." said Nage, This made Jas raised an eyebrow and the clerk to stutter. "W-What? You're done? Coming from you that's saying a lot." said the clerk, Nage simply nodded. "Fine, but this is coming from my pockets. You'll be owing me instead of this caravan. You said you wanted enough? 100 caps should do fine."

"That's perfect, thank you." Said Nage.

"Alright here is your cut, and your loan." He passed two sacks of caps to Nage and passed one to Jas. "I'll give the rest of the boys their cuts too. nice run Nage." We walked out of the building, waved goodbye to the rest of the caravan and went on to the main street again. "Nage were you serious about quitting the caravan?" asked Jas. "Yeah, I was. I'm pretty tired of walking the same route over and over again. I'm taking a break from the business."

"Where are we heading now?" I asked. "First, the clinic. Your wounds are already fixed, but they can heal even faster after a trip to the doc." we continued walking up the street, passing all the market stands. near the end of the street. (which lead to a wall built of cars and large pieces of metal)

"Welp, I only came with you guys so far for the trip. I'm heading back to the post." said Jas. Nage and I waved him off as we entered the clinic. There were several medical beds spread around the building, which is just one very large room. Medical equipment and medical curtains were next to beds, this is so far the cleanest room I've seen so far in the wasteland.

On the beds were several people laying down, either resting or unconscious. There were two people walking around wearing medical lab coats. One of them was tending to a patient, while the other was reading a clipboard from a medical bed. "Hey Doc!" Nage yelled, the man that was reading from the clipboard then turned his head in attention.

I was still looking at the medical equipment as Nage walked up to the doctor. One of the patients had a IV support injected to him, and another had a mask feeding him oxygen. I was pretty fascinated on how a world like this can have such sophisticated medical centers. "Hey Ken! come here!" Nage called. I walked over to them, "Alright, an inspection and quickie treatment of wounds will range to about 100 caps, Nage." said the doctor. "That's fine." said Nage, he then passed the same sack the clerk gave him back at the post to the doctor. The doctor takes a look in the sack and stores it in his strap bag.

"Alright. Ken was it? Please come with me." He said. I looked at Nage, "Go ahead, he's gonna help those wounds heal a lot more faster" Nage assured, I followed the doctor to one of the medical beds and laid down as he directed me to. He lifted my shirt and inspected the wound, and I was rather embarrassed when he actually told me to remove my pants so he can see the entry wound on my ass. He chuckled, "Heh, quite a shot you did Nage.". I could not hide the redness on my face.

He pulled out a bottle of some kind of labeled liquid, he pulled out a sterile syringe and extracts the liquid. "This will sting for a moment, and it's effects will knock you out for a few hours." I looked out the window, It was only Midday. Looks like I'm going to have a sleepless night in this town. I nodded and closed my eyes, he aimed the syringe to the entry wound and injected the liquid.

_**I get new experiences every day, like today, I take a needle in my ass.**_

The doctor was right, it really give me a horrible sting, but almost instantly I felt really sleepy. My whole body went limp, the last thing I saw was him getting ready to make another injection on my side, then I went out cold.


	9. Chapter 8

**Those guys**

_**"If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man's intelligence and his comprehension... would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution."**_

_**Dwight D. Eisenhower**_

I think my special talent is falling out of consciousness, because lately, I've been doing that alot. I woke up under a bright light and slowly pulled myself up to a setting position on my medical bed. The first thing I noticed was that my leg and side has been completely healed. "Evening, buddy" said a voice. I turned my head, it was the doctor, it was only him here. The other attendant must have left. He walked to me, patting my back and instructing me to try to stand. I did as he asked and only struggled for a moment, but after that the pain in my leg was gone.

I couldn't help but let out a relieved smile, I can now walk with ease without any crutches slowing me down! "Feels a lot better don't it?" said the doctor, "I'll say!" I replied, I feel as though as I could dance! "Thank you so much, I'm sorry I didn't quite catch your name doc" I asked. "It's Doc" he said. I was rather surprised by his reply, "Really?" was what I said, making sure this isn't some kind of joke. "I'm serious" He said, "My parents could apparently tell the future and named me Doc" he continued.

Doc is an interesting man, he is one of only two medics in this town. Which I must say, must be a very busy job, especially in times like these. Doc used to be a wanderer, someone who didn't settle in a town and would much rather travel the wastes and survive on their own or with a group. Doc decided to settle in this town because of the need of medical people, he thought there would be a high profit for that so he stayed.

Soon, a knock came to the door and who walked in was Nage. "That's Nage alright, glad we had this talk." said Doc, I shooked his hand and walked to Nage with a smile. "Well, someone finally kicked off the training wheels". I..didn't quite get the joke, all I gave was a "Huh?". "Nevermind" was what he said, I waved off Doc and followed Nage out the door.

"Hungry?" Nage asked as we walked. "Hell, yeah I am. I was sleeping all day and haven't had a bite to eat." i replied. It was night time outside, there was still quite a bit of activity in the main street of town however. I took a look at my PitBoy's watch, and found out that it was 9pm. I pulled out a can of two century old tomatoes and offered it to Nage as I pulled another can for myself. "Oh no, It's better to save that for when you're out of town. Let's get something fresh, on me." said Nage, I didn't exactly get what he meant by "fresh" but, it sounded more appealing than canned fruit.

We walked to a building that had a card board sign that reads "Grill n' Kill", not exactly a welcoming name for a restaurant if you ask me. We sat down at a table in the building. I looked around to see what other people were eating, I see various meals that look like it's been burned, and one of the meals looked like a small animal just like the one I saw at the house i was sleeping at my first day out. Nage couldn't help but chuckle, "It's called meat, and we cook it to eat 'em" he said, he must have caught me eying the food. "I know what meat is! I just... never seen them look like that." I replied. The vault's 'meat' was actually some kind of brown sludge, that when cooked, hardens and warms into a delicious meal.

A woman in a dirty apron came by our table, "Hey boys, watcha hungry for?".I had no clue what to order, I looked to Nage who did then ordered for me. "We'll both have Bovine steaks and two beers", My head perked slightly when he said 'beers'. "alright boys, commin' up" said the women, she then walked toward the bar. "Uhh, Nage. Maybe I should have this instead?" I pulled out my Nuka-Cola from my bag. "Well, I already ordered your damn beer, best to save it now." he said, I timidly placed back my soda. "What? You don't drink?" he asked, giving me a chuckling smile. I couldn't stop the redness spreading across my face, "N-Not very often, I hardly drink at all". The liquor at the vault wasn't bad at all, the taste was fine, I guess it was because I was still being a kid and continued drinking soda. I mean, I get that some people don't drink a lot, but would occasionally drink at parties and such. I am not that, so I drink soda instead.

"Welp, you gotta quench your thirst, and I'm not letting you waste my caps." said Nage, I nodded. I guess it won't be such a big deal.

To change the subject, I wanted to know a bit more about Nage just like I knew more about Doc. "So, where you always part of the Caravan Outfit?" I asked, Nage looked up at me took a moment to think and simply said "I was a Wanderer like Doc for a time". At least he answered my question, but I wanted to know a bit more than that. I opened my mouth to asked another question but then I was abruptly interrupted by yelling across the room.

** "You fucking bitch!"**

Me and Nage turned our heads to the direction of the noise, a bald, beefy man struck one of the waitress girls with his fist.

"**It's been three fuckin' weeks now! Where the fuck are my caps?!"**

The man was kicking the sides of the poor waitress, then picking her up practically choking her by the neck. Someone had to stop him! Hand on my holster I stood up, but Nage grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back down. "We got to help her!" I silently protested, Nage simply put his finger on his lips.

** "It's over now bitch! I'll turn your fucking corpse to nothing bu-"**

_**BR-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT!**_

A loud submachine gun roared from across the room, the man was torn to bits as he yelled in pain before one of the bullets hit his throat and head, each bullet taking a large piece of human meat and brain matter with it. The man, now a corpse, dropped the lady who was surprisingly untouched by the gunfire. Other waitresses came by to pick her up and walk her to safety.

That angry man apparently had some friends with him, they stared at the one who shot him to bits. The one who shot him was the bartender woman, still aiming her sub machine gun at the group, smoke was still coming out of the gun's barrel. "If anyone's killing here, it oughta be me! No one touches my girls, which one of you boys are next?!" yelled the woman.

They raised their hands in the air, and slowly walked to the door to exit. "Ah shit, now I gotta clean this shit up." she yelled out, some of the people in the restaurant chuckled and laughed including Nage. I was in total shock and awe, did no one just see the flying bits of human meat everywhere?! I lost my appetite now!

A little while later, the waitress came to deliver our food. "Two beers and two bovine steaks" she said. We were given our food and she walked off, I took a look at my meal. It looked to me like a piece of flesh that's been burned. "That's because it is!" said Nage, after hearing me say that out loud. Skeptically, I took my knife and sliced a piece of meat to chew, doing so, I discovered that the inside of the meat isn't brown but rather a light pink. I placed it in my mouth and began to chew. After swallowing it, I realized that it actually tasted quite nice, very chewy too.

"Tastes pretty good now doesn't it?" Nage said with his smile, he then took a bite of his steak. After he took a swig of his alcoholic drink, he looked at me and noticed I have yet to have opened mine. "Well, come on now." he said, I opened the beer bottle and took a sniff of it, it reeked of alcohol. Finally, after a full minute, I lifted the bottle to my lips and raised it to take a full sip of the drink. Nage lifted an eyebrow, the drink was burning my throat, but I did not show it. Before Nage could ask if I liked it, I took another sip, this time it didn't burn my throat. "It's alright." I said, trying to give a cool statement. Nage gave me a doubtful look, chuckled and went back to his meal "Next time I'm getting you Nuka-Cola"

Suddenly, very loud footsteps were heard outside. I was not the only one that could here this, everyone in the restaurant turned their heads toward the door. Three men walked through, but these men were men unlike anyone I've seen in this world so far. For a moment, I thought these men were not human at all. Steel covered them from head to toe, their boots were heavy and made all the table vibrate with every step they take. Was this armor? It was not like anything I've ever seen, the steel armor looked very thick and is painted blue and yellow.

What really made these men seem alien to me, was their helmets. Nothing like vault security helmets, it completely covers their face with steel, tubes, and what appears to be a respirator. The weapons they wield were strange, It had the same build as a M4 assault rifle but with heavy modifications. Tubes and several different modules were embedded all over the rifle, the tubes had some kind of flowing ooze that gave a bright red color. Each of the men had large yellow font numerals and letters at the back of their armor. They walk up to the bar and spoke to the woman who had shot the angry man earlier.

The bartender was cleaning several shot glasses when she asked "What are you guys here for?" The voice I heard from that intimidating helmet sounded as if it was being played by the Vault's PA system, "Just assessing the situation you had earlier, we heard some shots fired.".

"I handled it." said the bartender.

"We know, we just need something to report." replied the armored man.

The bartender looked very annoyed, "A man was causing trouble, things went violent so I gunned him down.".

"Sounds to me, you simply did not want to find a non-violent resolution. Instead just blowing him to bits." said the armed soldier.

"Typical wastelander, more to write in my report I suppose.." he added.

This irked the bartender, she raised her voice to the soldier, "Yeah well, report that a law abiding citizen handled a dangerous thug, and that the Order does not need to police this town with their superiority bullshit." said the bartender.

"Only difference we got is that armor, and you know it." she continued

The soldier and the bartender glared at each other for a moment, he then leaned forward closer to the bar and said _"Be very, very careful with what you say... Maybe you and your fellow tribal fucks should learn a little thing called respect."_

"You don't scare me. Why don't you take off that shiny little helmet and say that to my face?" the bartender retorted.

The soldier glared at her for another minute, he raised his hand and yelled out "Move out.", the other two armored men then turned and walked out the building along with the third.

The bartender went back to cleaning her glasses, and turned to Nage and asked "Who were those guys?". Nage took another swig of his beer and after a long sigh he explained "Those guys are Knights of the Revos Order, or just simply 'The Order." Couple of years ago they started reaching around these parts. It's been a few months since they set up a base camp down in Amherst, they're numbers are getting bigger since then.". I let Nage continue about the order.

"The Order is a military branch of their society way down south. They only have an expeditionary regiment at Amherst right now, but sooner or later they'll send in a brigade to take over everything. No one here likes 'em because of they think they're some superior people, calling us dirty tribals and what not... Tersha has, so far, avoided annexation."

We've been quiet after that, we both finished our meals, Nage payed for them and we both walked out. The night was lit by the moon, something shiny reflects the light. Down the street from where we are, thick steel armor reflects the light of the moon, worn by well over two dozen knights.

All of them were standing in rows, then suddenly they picked up their feet and began marching out the entrance of town.

"Platoon reinforcements to Paxton." explained Nage.

"Reinforcements?" I asked.

"Backup for the battle going on in Paxton, looks like the Order are really stepping it up into taking over that town" said Nage.

"Why do they want Paxton so bad?"

"Paxton is the last thing that stopping the Order from entering Worcester, after that, Boston."

According to the map data on my PipBoy, Boston was once the capital of this state and a large center of trade and knowledge.

We walked down along the main street, our stomachs full of lean bovine steak and a bottle of beer. Compared to the last two days of being outside the vault, today certainly takes the top for most least worrying. "I'm guessing you aren't tired, seeing as you pretty much slept all day." said Nage, this was true, I wasn't tired at all. I nodded my head in agreement with Nage, "Let's head to my place, I wanna take a look at your piece." he said.

"M-My Piece?!" I yelped, face reddening.

"Your guns, dumbass." he explained.

I let out a relieved "Oh." I thought he meant...

_ Wow... I clearly misunderstood what he meant by piece._


	10. Chapter 9

**_Weapons Check_**

**_"Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun."_**

**_Don Marquis_**

I expected a little more for Nage's home, but it's basically a shack, a shack made up of rusty scrap metal. It was in the western end of town that is the least inhabited. When we reached the shack, Nage tried opening the door but it was stuck. He struggled for a while but the door would not budge, he gave up and kicked the door off it's hinges out of frustration. "Home sweet home" he said sarcastically.

His "Home" had only one room. this room had a make shift furnace, a small desk, a locker which look like the ones in the Vault's school, and his bed... Well, actually it was more like a mattress on a metal frame, no blankets or pillow.

"Sit down, Ken. Show me what you got." He said, I assumed he meant me to sit down on the bed because there was no chair in sight here. I pulled up my single strapped bag and pulled out that mysterious pistol I found in that safe three days ago. I also pulled up my remington combat shotgun.

I placed them next to each other on the bed along with my 10mm pistol, Nage puts his hand on his chin and began to take a look at my little arsenal. He picks up the shotgun and takes a closer inspection. "Huh, you got yourself a remmy-shot. it looks pretty tactical!" He exclaimed..._remmy-shot?_ he seemed pretty impressed. He stood up and walked to his locker, after adding a combination to the lock he opened it up and pulled out a shotgun of his own.

"My Rem's a lot older, but I kept it clean and working." He said, passing the shotgun to me. He's right about the gun being older, the stock was made of wood! but it still looked polished and clean, Nage really did cared for this gun. The gun didn't have any rail mounts to add any attachments to like mine.

"Your model is a shotty used by the military before the bombs dropped, mine here is a civilian model, less tactical but they both give a good punch. I'm assuming you got yours from your Vault's armory" he said.

"Yeah, I thought our weapons were quite average, I had no clue they were pretty tactical compared to everyone else's here." I said. "Oh no, there are certainly some advance weaponry out here as well, though they are pretty rare."

He looked at my shotgun's attachments, the shell strap where the stock is and my optic sights. "alright let's see your pistol, I've already seen your 10mm pistol, so show me the other one." I passed him the mystery pistol I found, "Hmm" he said. "This is a beretta 40mm pistol. Packs a heavy punch, '40 bullets are hollow pointed and can literally punch right through a human body and hitting the guy behind him."

"Hollow pointed?" I asked. "It's a bullet that has it's tip hollowed out, that way, when it hits something. More particularly, flesh, it does a hell of alot more damage."

"Jeez, it's that strong eh? Quite glad I found this gun in a safe, though, I don't have any such ammo for it" I said.

"Hm" said Nage, he was looking at my 10mm pistol, likely comparing it to the Beretta. "The 10mm is reliable at best.. for wild animals and wandering raiders at least. Sooner or later you'll face more tougher game, like Mutants or Mercs. If I were you, I'd sell this pistol and it's ammo to try to buy some '40 rounds."

Sell my gun? I guess since I haven't used it yet, it's good condition will have some value in the market. So far, only the shotgun has kept me alive. I nodded yes to Nage to which made him smile.

I'm... not sure why... but that smile, for some odd reason, reminded me very much of Liam. I wonder how the Vault is doing since I've been gone? Nothing much except strict water restrictions I bet, I don't think many people miss me except maybe for my mom. She might just go through another drinking binge if she did find out I left the vault.

Nage then removed the sniper that was strapped on his back, and placed in one of his lockers. He slung his shotgun over his shoulder, "Let's hit the market" he said. I gather my gear together and followed him out the door.

The main street was still full of activity, people are entering and leaving the town constantly.

Nage and I walked toward a line of market stalls set up, there were 3 kinds of people there. People who are buying. People who are selling, and people who are guarding the merchandise. Nage said that he's been all three over the years, and knows the tricks to getting a quick deal.

We walked up to a merchant who is selling weapons on an open stall. Two men armed with rifles I never seen, were standing next to the man. "Give me the 10mm, Ken. Just watch and learn."

Nage walked to the merchant and began the trade. The merchant greeted him and offered him a mini tour of his collection, but Nage nodded him off. "I'm here only to sell, my man. Tell me what you think of this." Nage pulled out the 10mm pistol and placed it on the table. The merchant glanced at it, "10mm huh? Alright, I think it'll be good for 35 caps" said the merchant.

"Ohhh, but you haven't even looked in the chamber." Nage picked up the pistol and pulled it back."See? Totally spotless, this gun is in great condition and won't break on you anytime soon." he continued. "Ya serious 'bout that? It does look clean..." Nage tempted the merchant even further. "Take it from me, You could sell this gun for 80 caps, and I'll let you take it from my hands for 65."

"Hey you got a point there! Alright, I'll take it for 65." said the merchant. He then exchanged a bag of caps for the weapon. Nage gave a quick count of the caps, and waved him off. we both walked back into the Main street.

"Here ya go, Ken. Some starting money, don't lose it." said Nage as he passed me the sack of bottle caps. "Thanks, but what will I need these caps for?" I asked. "Well, sooner or later you're either gonna run outta ammo, get hungry, or get pretty hurt. you may need to pay for some supplies ya see" Nage replied.

We walked around the market more for Nage's needs. He bought ammo for his sniper, "Special" shells for his shot gun, a few stimpacks(Much like the ones in the medkit I have) and a bottle of nuka cola.

Nage and I both walked out to the main street. At this point, I was feeling thirsty. I pulled out my Nuka-Cola. I stared at it for a while, I considered saving it but I was too excited of the sweet tasty liquid it held. Nage chuckled, seeing me so eager to drink this delicious beverage. I popped open the bottle cap and added it to my small collection.

I raised the bottle to my mouth, and took in a very large sip. It tasted amazing! Just like the Nuka-Cola at the Vault! I was getting really homesick, and finally for once I get this tasty sensation that reminded me much of home.

**_ TICK-ICK-ICK_**

_ Woah now, hold on. that sounded really close._

I took a look at my PipBoy and found the source of the ticking sound. it was the geiger counter ticking, indicating that I had just absorbed...

**"BLRUHGHAH!"**

_Oh boy._ I bent over, and spewed out a bit of my dinner.

Nage snorted a bit, then bursted out laughing! "You ok there Ken? Heheh, you'll get used to it!". Get used to it?! I just jugged irradiated soda! He walked over to me and patted my back, "Feeling better? Probably a good idea to keep your steak in your gut."

"Gughh.. I'll be fine.. It tasted so good, then suddenly.. the aftertaste." I said, "First time is the worst time, Ken. Take another sip, it won't be as bad" said Nage. I looked at the remaining soda, there was a few sips left in the bottle. My geiger counter showed that I had only absorbed a tiny non dangerous amount of radiation. I could feel the tiny chunks of digested bovine steak in my throat, I pushed myself to lift the bottle again and take another sip.

Thats more like it, No puke this time. The soda's sweet liquid flushed out all the puke that was left behind in my throat. I guess Nage was right about how the first sip is the worst, now I can actually enjoy this drink..

Tersha is a town near a lake. According to Nage, one reason why the Order wants to annex this town so much was because their forward base, Amherst, was directly on the other side of the lake. Tersha prohibited the Order from landing troops here by boat for fear of being invaded by them. This way, Knights will have to travel by land which would take alot longer for them then to travel by boat.

"Then why won't the Order simply invade? By the looks of their troops, this town would have no chance at all." I said when Nage was explaining this to me.

"The Revos Order is the military branch of a government that was established a few decades ago. Way down south, is where they rebuilt society. A place where they adopted the ways of the old world before the great war, It's something called Democracy... people have just as much power as their leaders." said Nage

I've never actually quite heard of such a thing. In Vault Omega26, the only leadership is of the Overseer and his security force. The only time where the people of the vault get any actual say, is when we vote for a new Overseer.

"With a society like that, you can't go wrong. Things would go haywire if those people find out that their government invaded weak defenceless towns. So the government 'Annexes' towns instead." continued Nage

"I see... So I'm guessing Tersha is just giving the Order a hard time to annex them a huh?" I said. "Yep, but it's bound to happen eventually... They've already done so to other towns near here."

I took a look at my PipBoy, It was now midnight, day 4. I learned quite a bit in this world, things I don't really need to know if you live in a Vault. All these hardships, all this... horror.. are just average everyday lives to these people. I wonder how these people manage to completely accustomed themselves in such a condition they can't escape. Still.. people like Nage and Jas exist... I should be dead, but they decided to spend their time to help me. I feel like I owe a great debt to them, then again, I did got shot by them.

We went back to Nage's shack house, as we entered he went straight to his locker and placed his shotgun back.

"Alright then. Let's go." said Nage, "Go where?" I asked.

"You were heading down that route when I shot you, I'm assuming you're trying to head somewhere huh? I'll help you out." said Nage.

"Well, I'm not sure if you're willing to go as far as Worcester.." I said. I thought after saying that, he would change his mind and leave me be, what he said next surprised me.

"Hell, Worcester it is then... We'll need to get through Paxton first though. Normally that'd be a suicide mission, but it just so happens that luck is on our side. A platoon of heavily armored Knights just left Tersha on their way to Paxton." Nage pulled his sniper over his shoulder and strapped on his leather armor. "Hell, I feel confident. Here, take this." he said, passing me a leather shoulder pauldron.

"Strap that thing on one of your shoulders, that oughta give ya some protection." he said. "It's only cover's one shoulder!" I protested. "Hey now! That thing will probably stop a bullet from hitting you! It also covers 'bout 5% of your body, added to your body vest!" Nage argued.

_ Probably? 5%? Oh yeah... I like those odds._

After we got our essential gear together, we left Tersha with it's protection, food and other supplies behind us, back on the road again. At our current rate, we'll reach Barre by sun rise morning, take a few hours rest, and be at Paxton at midday.

A few hours later, walking down the route, Nage broke the silence we had. "Alright Ken, I gotta ask you something." said Nage. By now we could see the buildings that made up the town of Barre with the sun rising from the treeline, giving a orange color to the sky.

_ "What's going on in your Vault, that's making you go to the one in Worcester?"_


	11. Chapter 10

_**Warm Greetings**_

_**"Don't tell your friends about your indigestion. 'How are you' is a greeting, not a question."**_

_**Arthur Guiterman**_

I told Nage what my mission was, later that morning. I told him the events that happend in the Vault that had casued a crisis that demanded action. Hark, the openig of the Vault, the Invasion...

We continued walking a few hours after we rested. "So that chip thing of yours, is a top priority huh?" said Nage, I nodded yes and said, "I really hope things don't get rough in the Vault." Nage gave a concerned look on his face, "Do you think you can really pull off a mission like that?" I kinda did not want to respond to that question, because that's the very question I ask myself. "I'll have to" was all I said.

Eventually, as we continued walking down the route, we began to hear large booming sounds from a distance. "There's that sound, Paxton ain't so far off now." said Nage. "What is that sound?" I asked, "Those would be the mortar rounds, heavy explosive shells that are bombarding Paxton." said Nage

"Who is shooting them?" I asked. "Everyone" said Nage.

Nage later explained to me about what's going on in Paxton. Apparently, the battle in Paxton is much larger than the small town itself, originally it was a collection of villages made up of many people. Eventually the population in the town greatly exceeded Tersha, up to nearly a thousand people.

The villages, would quarrel with each other, but not to the point where they would completely annihilate each other. It was because of this, the villages never united. A mercenary company known as the "Fangs" suddenly marched into Paxton, and opened fire on the villages.

Despite the mercenaries were vastly outnumbered, the villages never united and so numbers did not matter.

This was around the time, when the Revos Order had more presence in the region. Wanting to carve a path to Boston, they needed to get through Paxton first. So a great battle fought between the Knights of the Revos order, The Fangs, and the people of the villages in the crossfire.

As we reached atop a hill the road was going to. I can finally see Paxton. Smoke risen all over the not so small town, the villagers who had formerly lived here definitely made this town a lot larger than it originally had been. Nage pointed to a road heading east, "That's where the Order's forward operating base is. As a caravan we could check up there, telling them we're not targets to be shot at, but I'm gonna bet they would be willing us out a bit."

We walked on the road heading east toward the forward base, the bombings and the sounds of gunfire are echoed all over the area. "Strap your weapon, they'll shoot us if they see us walking in with guns in our arms." said Nage.

I did as he said, and strapped my shotgun around my shoulder and continued to walk along the road. As we continued, we see a small compound of barns and a house. the compound had a perimeter of a rusty chain linked fence with barbed wire.

Suddenly, from the woods a shot was fired. A screeching bullet hit the concrete road a few feet from us, the bullet was going so fast it gave a very distinctive sight, almost as if it just shot a red laser!

I panicked when I heard the shot, I wanted to reach for my gun but Nage placed his hand on my shoulder. "That was just a warning shot, relax." A voice that sounded as if it was coming from a radio sounded.

HALT!

Two armored knights,that had their heavy steel armor camouflaged, emerged from the woods. They pointed their advanced rifles at us, "Hold on there, we're not enemies of you. We're just here to see who's' in charge."

"State your business here, this is a restricted area."

Restricted area? What has Nage lead us into?! I didn't want to say anything, I was still shaken up by that warning shot, Nage finally gave an explanation as to why we were here.

"We were deployed from... Amherst! Command sent us to aid in Paxton."

"We already have a platoon's worth of soldiers sent in from command, you're not backup. Turn around and walk before we blow your heads off!"

I almost did exactly as the knight ordered, but Nage once again, grabbed my shoulder urging me to stay.

"Alright soldier, you caught me. We'll be leaving just as soon as you can give me your names, ranks, and serial numbers."

"Why do you need to know those for?"

"So I can tell command that the mission has failed because two Knights would not let us see who is in charge here."

"Bullshit. You're not from command. Last warning, tribal. Turn your asses around and walk away before we put holes in your heads."

Nage will only accomplish getting us killed if he keeps this up! I take a step back, but Nage stood his ground and continued to talk.

"If you must know my business, I am delivering very valuable cargo to whoever is in charge here."

"What's the cargo? I see no Bovine anywhere."

Nage pointed his thumb at me

"This guy right here. He is a vault dweller, and commands knows he could be of some aid in Paxton."

W-What?! I'm Cargo!?

"You're kidding me... He's not a Vault Dweller."

"Take a look at his jumpsuit and wrist computer, he is definitely a Vault Dweller. However, if you still believe I am an intruder, I'll just be leaving. This just means you stay in this hell longer, rather than going back to amherst."

Both the Knights looked at each other.

Nage finally turned around and began to walk. I joined along with him, but before we could walk a few feet one of the Knights called out to outs.

"Wait! Hold on there!"

Nage turned his head.

"W-we'll let you through. Don't cause any trouble." Said the Knight. Nage smiled and nodded, we both walked toward the compound. Both of the knights then returned to their posts in the forest, eventually disappearing because of the camouflage armor.

As we walked up to the compound, we walked past more armed Knights straight into the center of the base. A Knight approached us, he was not wearing their helmet, proving to me that these soldiers were actually human. The knight had a large gash across his forehead and several skeletal thumbs as a necklace. A good look at his armor would tell you he's been through several battles, All scratched up and even burnt!

Nage gestured his hand for a handshake, and the Knight shook his hand.

"How ya doin', Sergeant Major Ernam"

"Nage, nice to meet ya'

"You don't look like any backup Amherst would send, what brings you here?"

"We're on a bit of a mission, who is in charge here?"

Instead of answering Nage's question, he turned his head to me and his eyes widened.

"Y-You're a Dweller!"

"He sure is" said Nage

He still glared at me, making me feel uncomfortable, I was too nervous to say anything.

"He's... New. Out here, so uhh he's pretty shaken up."

"Oh of course, I understand." Ernam turned to me.

"It must be tough, to transition yourself into a world like this." He looked back to Nage

"Why would you bring him out here near Paxton?"

"Well, that's between me and your commanding officer." said Nage

"Captain Tarrish is the commanding officer here, He's in a meeting now though. Just. Taking a seat somewhere, I'll come get you when he's ready."

"Much obliged, Sergeant Major"

Ernam nodded, he took one more look at me and walked away.

Nage and I found a table to sit at one of the barn houses that had been converted to a mess hall. Not everyone was wearing armor, which dumbfounded me, all this time I used to think they either never take off their armor or were robots! These Knights are human like me and Nage, all different behind their intimidating helmets. All around the camp, were flagpoles holding the flag of their nation.

The flag shown to have a Blue background with two yellow stripes across and three yellow stars on top of the stripes. "Hey Nage." I called. "Hmm?" "You said the order is the military branch of a society far south. What is the society called?" I asked.

Nage took a second t think and answered. "It's called, The Washington Federation, It's where the Order originated and started a government that maintained peace, whether by force or not."

We waited for almost two hours just watching other people eat and mingle. Since we were outsiders, we did not make any conversations with them, however a few of them did keep staring at me...

Finally, Ernam returned to us "Alright, he's waiting to see you, follow me"

We both got up from our table and followed Ernam into another barn. This barn in particular is protected by several Knights, with Ernam with us, they stepped aside to let us in.

"Captain, they're here." said Ernam. in the room was a large table with a close up map of Paxton, with chairs all around the table. All the chairs were empty with the exception of one chair a man was sitting in. Instead of Power Armor, he wore some kind of uniform that had several medals. The captain looked at us, he had a straight forehead and had a very impressive scar, it looked as though a bullet had skid across his face all the way up to his hairline.

He looked up at us from his maps, and as expected, was shocked by my presence. However he isn't gasping or giving me a strange glare, his eyes widened for only a second then went back into hiding in his deep eye pockets. "Well, I'll be damned." He said. He stepped out of the chair and walked toward me, disregarding Nage and Ernam. "I haven't seen one of you in years..." he grabbed my arm and lifted it to his face, inspecting my PipBoy.

The Captain finally dropped my arm, "Right then. Welcome to the Order's forward operating base." He turned his head to Nage "I know command did not send you here to aid us, but because you have... this Vault dweller with you, I'm quite curious as to why you came here."

The Captain nodded Ernam, who placed a fist where his heart should be and walked away, was that some kind of salute? "Sorry for the strange inspection I gave you. I met a Vault dweller many years ago who served with the Order, name's Tarrish"

I took a step back after he released me, I gave a nervous chuckle "I-Its fine... Ken Mierson..." behind me Nage also stated his name.

"I'm taking him through Paxton to Worcester. He has some business there that needs to be taken care of." said Nage.

"What sort of business?" asked the Captain, Nage looked at me for a moment then back at him. "It's confidential."

"Ah, I see. I understand."

"I actually wanted to know if the Order still does civilian protection in Paxton, like how you did for the caravans"

"We don't do that anymore, we're putting all forces to focus on the Fangs in Paxton."

Nage paused for a moment.

"Can't you make an exception? You don't see a Vault dweller so often, I'm sure you agree with me that he should be protected a bit."

"Are you insisting that he should be of interest to the Order and the Federation of Washington?"

"Maybe, but right now he need's a good escort through Paxton."

Maybe? Am I precious cargo now? I don't like this, I feel like Nage is just trading my existence for an escort through Paxton.

"I'm sorry, I won't spare any more men only to taxi two people across a warzone. I won't help you."

The captain turned around back to his maps.

"But he's a-"

"I think I've heard enough."

Nage looked somewhat frustrated, "Right... I understand. Let's go, Ken" he nudged me to follow him. He looked angry or rather disappointed, was he really expecting the Order to help us?

Before I could set my last foot out the door the Captain yelled out "Wait a minute!."

We both turned around, "Maybe I can help you." he said. Nage and I reentered the room, the captain stood by the table. Standing beside him, we took a look at the maps. He pointed to a metal figurine that resembled a Knight "Ernam's fire team is heading into the southeast quadrant of town, now he won't be able to escort you all the way out of town, but I'll allow you to tag along with his team."

I looked at Nage, his angry and frustrated face is replaced with a sleek smile and a snicker. "Alright, Captain. what do you want in return?"

"I know there is a Vault in Worcester, and I'm gonna take a wild guess that that's where you are going huh? Well. Should that Vault be empty or abandoned, you will report it back to me, granted you even live."

"Will do, Captain." said Nage

"You're not a Knight. Quit calling me that, my name is Tarrish to you two." said the Captain... I mean Tarrish.

"Ernam's team is heading out in two hours, I'd get ready if I were you." Tarrish went back to his maps. "Thanks alot, Tarrish. You may have saved our asses out there."said Nage, then we both walked out the Barn house to the outside courtyard.

"What did he mean by the Vault being empty?" I asked Nage. He didn't answer me.

We met up with Ernam and told him of what Tarrish said. "Well alright, but we're not waiting on you two. You keep up with us and we'll be just fine."

Ernam insisted that we find something to do while we wait for the fire team to deploy. Nage decided to take a nap while sitting up leaving me to myself to wait. After a while I realized something. I had hardly touched my PipBoy's radio frequencies, I remember after leaving the Vault that it had picked up several.

I opened up the module and clicked a tab for "Radio" and found two sources.

One read "Federation Broadcast", the signal of it is really strong, coming assumingly from Amherst. Another frequency I found was called simply called "Local", It's signal is much weaker compared to the Federation's but it was good enough to hear it from where I am.

I tuned into the Federation broadcast first, I wanted to hear what they had to say. The voice that was playing sounded like a man who was enthusiastically preaching.

_-ederation is here to HELP you people! The Federation is here to help you not only survive but to thrive! To expand! To finally LIVE again! We ask that you reach out your hand.. embrace the federation, and in return... We shall grab your arms and pick you up on your feet again! I hope you think about that while I play this next song._

A song played, the quality of the song was scratchy but is comprehensible. I changed the frequency to the local signal. The voice in this signal was completely opposite of the Federation's broadcast. The voice in the radio sounded tired, and desperate.

There was radio noise for a while, finally a voice could be heard.

** *THZZZ* I don't *THZZZ* If anyone can hear me...**

**The Fang Mercenaries continue to wipe out everyone in all surrounding villages*THZZZ***

**They are *THZZZ* -illing everyone... all women and children alike.**

**Even with all the villages united, we stand no chanc-*THZZZZ* There is nowhere safe from the Fangs.**

**Everyone who could leave, has already fled. *THZZZ***

**Those who stayed... stay to fight back...**

**I am Gerro from the village that fell first to the Fangs, reporting in on the community radio.**

**Something has to change soon.**

**Or I'm afraid.**

**There won't be many of us left.**

**If you hear this... Please help us... This message repeats.**

***THZZZ***


	12. Chapter 11

**Broken Arrow**

_"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die." - Herbert Hoover_

Nage and I were walking about the compound looking for something to do, we eventually stopped at the radio post where we saw a stack of newspapers. "This oughta kill some time." pointed Nage, we both picked a newspaper and read the front page. The newspaper is called the "Washington Times"

** WORCESTER ON OUR SIGHTS**

**Our expeditionary boys up north push forward into Massachusetts to reclaim the land for the Federation! The expansion of the Federation hastens as locals embrace the Order's march for Democracy and Civility!**

I heard Nage chuckled, he muttered to himself "Yeah, right." and continued reading. Some of what the headliner says seem to be either lies or propaganda. Much of the locals I've seen so far have had a silent hatred for the Federation and the Order. One thing that's right though, is that the Order really does have it's sights on Worcester. After Paxton a route takes the Order's Knights directly to Worcester where they will set up another command base for their march to Boston.

"RED FLARE! NORTH SIDE OF TOWN!" someone yelled out, just as they said that I lifted my head to see a tall tower of red smoke. A crowd of Knights crowded around me and Nage looking at the flare, somewhere listening in on the radio station's chatter,

***THZZ*** "HQ THIS IS FORTH RECON DO YOU COPY OVER?!"

Gunfire could be heard in the background,the radio operator quickly gives his reply.

"Copy forth recon! I hear ya!"

***THZZ* **"HQ WE'RE TAKING HEAVY FIRE ON ALL SIDES IN THE NORTHERN SECTOR WE NEED MORTAR SUPPORT!"

Sergeant Major Ernam emerged from the crowd of knights to listen in on the radio conversation.

"Copy Forth Recon! Give us the enemy's position so we can fire!" replied the operator. "Ready the Mortars!" yelled another officer.

***THZZ*** "NOT POSSIBLE HQ, WE'RE TAKING SO MANY HITS WE CAN HARDLY PEEK OUR HEADS OU-"

The transmission was interrupted by loud gunfire, the crowd of Knights began to murmur things.

"Forth Recon, We cannot hit any enemy targets without any confirmation on their position! Do you copy?!"

There was no reply from the radio.

"I say again! Do you copy?!"

The radio remained silent for a full minute which felt to me (and I'm sure to others) like an hour. Finally a break of silence when a flare of black smoke rose from the Northern side of town. The radio transmission finally returns with the same Knight.

**"BROKEN ARROW! BROKEN ARROW!"**

The Voice of the knight giving the feed became frantic and very panicked. The murmurs around us became gasps and yelling. Ernam yelled out to the mortar teams, "Fire all around that black smoke! Hurry up!." Soon after that, the mortars completely fire all around the pillar of black smoke that leveled the area around it.

There wasn't a response from the radio after that. Both me and Nage were shocked by what happened.

Ernam walked up to me and Nage, it's been a few minutes and the mortars are still firing. "Fireteam is moving out now, let's hit the road." said Ernam, Nage and I shouldered our weapons and followed Ernam out of the compound. Near the entrance to the compound we are met with about a dozen or so Knights, some of them more "Decorated" with dented metal and bullet holes than others.

"Fireteam! Move out!" called out Ernam, the Knights then began their walk into the Paxton Warzone.

About 15 minutes later, we saw another team of Knights walking back to the compound. Many of those Knights were wounded and carried other Knights living or dead. I counted 8 Knights with 3 of them being carried. The Knight in front of the group carried in his hand several shiny objects that appear to be... necklaces?

"Sergeant Major!" Called out the Knight. He had in his hand, his helmet which had multiple bullet scratches. All over his face was dried blood, but I am unsure if its even his blood. "Report Corporal, where's your LT?" said Ernam.

"LT is dead along with the rest of the recon... We're lucky we got out alive and... even the dead we have here are lucky to be retrieved.. We encountered Raiders preying on the ones that were exhausted or out of ammo so watch out when you get there."

"Take everyone to the F.O.B, you've done enough son."

The corporal nodded and signaled his remaining team to continue, as they walk past us I could hear the moanings of pain from the men they carried on stretchers.

A little later, A armored Knight walked beside me. I noticed he was different from the others because he wore a medical armband. He expressed himself through this acccent that I never heard of. Some of the terms and ways he say things were strange to me. "Howdy! I'm the fire team's medic and I just gotta ask you a few questions."

His sudden approach shocked me a bit, I was expecting him to fire a volley of questions regarding me as a Vault Dweller, instead he asked me what my blood type is.

"Incase you lose a lot of blood, best to know what blood type you are so someone back at the F.O.B can get a blood transfusion ready."

Thanks to the PipBoy I was able to answer his questions... Though I could have stuttered less. It was rather awkward talking to an emotionless helmet rather than a human face, It made me feel uncomfortable.

"Name's Makos by the way, you?" He asked after a pause of silence.

Me being really really good at talking to people and totally not internally panicking I answered his question with yet another studder. "Ken" I said bluntly.

"Ken huh? You dwellers sure got some weird naming method, a name like Ken belongs to important people."

"W-what do you mean by that?"

"Like... 'Alex' for 'Alexander', 'Sam' for 'Samuel' or how your name could be short for 'Kennedy' all of those names are saved for important people because long ago when this land was green, those names belonged to leaders."

"What makes you think you're not important?"

"Heh, well look at me. I ain't no mayor of a city or some politician. Just some medic."

By the sound of his voice through the helmet's little radio that amplifies him, he sounded rather young.

"Just how old are you, Makos?"

"17."

Jesus he's just a kid!

"When did you join the Order?"

"Well. In the Federation we got an education system, schools ya know? In such a school you can enlist for the Order at 16, then you gotta go through training for 2 years."

"But you're 17, how did you skip one year?"

"One year for extensive training and one year for leadership and management training. However, in our schools you can take a course called 'ROTC' that teaches you that stuff. Doin' that course in school will get you to skip the officer training, and start ya off as a Private rather than an Initiate."

"So I'm guessing you took such a course?." The metal helmet nodded

"Why though?"

"Why?..." The young medic really took a full minute to think about this question.

"Gosh... no one ever asked me that before. Down south everyone expects someone to do a least a little for the effort of expanding the federation... I guess I just wanted to do my part. Spreadin' democracy ya know?"

"It doesn't seem very democratic bullying towns to be annexed..."

"I know it looks like that, but I hope you realize that we're just doing whats best for everyone here."

Makos turned his head at me and stared at my PipBoy. After yet, another awkward silence he finally broke it with another question.

"I hope you don't see me as another guy who just stares at a Dweller but... Ya know It's just that I never seen one up close, sorry for staring at ya wrist thingy."

"It's quite alright, I'm used to it by now." I raised my wrist to give him a closer look. I never actually given an outsider a closer look, but he seems more curious rather than shocked and astonished like many other people who see me.

"This is the Rad Meter where it tells me how much radiation I am absorbing, and these knobs changes the 'tabs' within the interface to go to different options..." I gave him a tiny tour of my PipBoy. In exchange, he told me a little bit about the Infamous Power Armor of the Order.

Just like the PipBoy, the Suit has an interface, but it is not interactive and you can only see it by looking inside the helmet. The helmet shows a HUD or a 'Heads Up Display', where it tells you the status of your health. It can detect where you are bleeding and can show where your allies are in a tiny radar that is displayed.

The pipes and tubes that connect to the helmet gives more "Humidified" air to the wearer. This is usually good when it comes to running very long distances. Of course, people can adapt and get used to the dirty air, but when a body is given this cleaner air, all functions are significantly better.

"Where are you from Makos?" I asked him.

"I'm from Carolina, a province in the federation. The most southern tip of it."

"You came a long way!"

"Yeah, I was expecting to go to the frontier in Georgia. A place farther south beyond our borders. Instead I was shipped here."

"You must really miss home."

"I do. I won't go back for quite a while... Wonder how my folks are holdin' up. "

Makos raised his head and looked at me.

'You know! There's actually a Vault in Carolina!"

"Well. Of course. There are many Vaults."

"Yes but, this Vault is different, _Vault-Kilo12_ Opened up to find a wasteland like this. Instead of hiding back into their Vault, the dwellers stepped out and built a city! All of the last dwellers are likely dead now, but all their descendants still live there!"

This news was shocking to me. A Vault. That built a city outside? The protocol at our Vault forbids such a thing, our vault was meant to remain closed until any US officials would come to introduce them to the restored world. I guess the citizens in this_ "Vault-Kilo12"_ may have had something else in mind, seeing a not-so-restored world.

"What is the city called?"

"It's called '_Sustineo_' which is Latin for 'survive' or to 'last', 'sustain' and 'endure'.

"Eventually it got annexed into the Federation, but it doesn't let just any federation citizen to enter the city. They make you do some kind of citizenship test."

I learned a lot of the Federation because of Makos, the names of the provinces were former states of the country, the people, the way of life they have there is very different from how it is here. Instead of fighting to survive, you fight for civility and society.

I really enjoyed our talk, I was about to ask Makos what the term_ "Broken Arrow"_ means but when we got closer to the battlezone, Ernam turned around and told us both to shut up and stay vigilant, it ended our conversation.

The farther we walked down the road, the more louder and dangerous it gets. Occasionally, a stray bullet would hit a tree or something some short distance away, but I would be the only one flinching since everyone including Nage seemed to have walked down this road several times. As we approached some buildings Ernam finally sounded off orders to the fireteam.

"Alright! Everyone keep watch for contacts, watch your fire, and spread out! I don't want the whole team dying to a single mortar round!"

"Yes, Sir!" Replied the rest of the team.

Nage walked beside me and nudged my right arm. "Have you... um, ever been in a firefight with anyone outside yet?"

"N-No I haven't. I mean, the invasion on the Vault was my only fighting experience."

"Have you killed anyone?"

"A few."

"Well, remember that this isn't a Vault anymore. Raiders and Fang Mercs will likely be using grenades and Bazookas more often than in an enclosed area."

"What are those things? A grenade and... Bazookies?"

"You...never heard of... Well. They're just things that make you blow up! Just...when you see things get blow up to hell run to cover, alrigh-"

Nage got interrupted by Makos yelling out: **"CONTACT!"**

The Knights, Nage and I turned to Makos' general direction. Before I could make out what 'Contact' Makos has seen, bullets start buzzing past us.

_** PAK PAK PAK PAK PAK!**_

** "COVER!"  
**

Half the team including Ernam ran for cover inside one of the buildings, while Makos and the rest of the Knights ran into the Mortar-Made ditch. I froze up in the wrong moment, I could not move at all.. the fear struck me in a crucial moment. Nage got up from the ditch and pulled me in, causing me to fall on my back.

"Idiot! Don't freeze up like that! I could have died with you!

_** PAK PAK PAK PAK PAK!**_

Bullets were flying over our heads and hitting the dirt that was protecting us.

"COVERING FIRE!" yelled out Ernam from the building near us. The screeching bullets flew out the building into the bush where enemy fire was coming from.

"Now! Come on!" Yelled out Makos. Nage tugged me to run along with the Knights running into the building where there was more proper cover. Knights were shooting out of the windows toward the bush, at this range, my shotgun could not do much.

"We're not staying here long! Get ready to move out!" cried out Ernam. We were all inside a makeshift house much like the ones in Tersha. With covering fire, we each ran across the street one by one until we all managed to get away from the enemy's line of sight.

"Is anyone hit?!" Yelled out Makos. One of the Knights raised his hand to signal Makos to come to him, he was sitting down in a corner of the room where, on his lap, laid a wounded knight. "Medic! Medic! He's been hit!"

"Where is he hit?"

"Got 2 hits in his left leg. I already pulled out one in his thigh but another is stuck in there somewhere.

"The armor slowed the bullet down so it won't be that deep. Turn him over let's get that bullet out so we can stop the bleeding!"

The man who was hit moaned in pain and winced when Makos used his medic tools to pullet out the metal shard that shaped a bullet. All of this was too familiar... bullets flying and people wounded. However there is major difference between the Home invasion and now... These people were calm... these Knights are taking this situation into their hands rather than just panicking like how I would be.

From buildings across the street, we were being fired at. Thankfully however, this apartment complex we're garrisoned at, provides much more cover than the house we were at before. I see Nage pulling out his sniper rifle and poked out one of the building's windows. I turned my head back to Makos, who was now bandaging the wound on the Knight's leg.

"They hit nothing important. Can you walk?"

"It hurts like hell, but I can move." moaned the Injured Knight. Makos helped him up and propped him near a window so he can help return fire.

Ernam came from behind me and pulled my shoulder, "Listen to me, I'm sending a few Knights to run across the street. You and Nage are going with them. From there, get Nage on the roof so he can snipe out that machine gunner nest."

I nodded, he stepped toward the windows and ordered his Knights to cease fire and reload. Me, Nage, Makos and five other Knights ready ourselves for the run. "Don't freeze up this time, just run to the next house, ok?" Nage whispered to me.

"Wait until the gunner reloads!" Yelled out Ernam. The heavy fire from the machine gun nest suddenly stopped, "Suppressing Fire!."

All the Knights at the windows simultaneously fired at the gunner nest, forcing them to take cover. "Now!" Yelled a Knight, so we all ran to the next house across the street.

Despite the machine gunner being put out of commission, there were still bullets from rifles whizzing past us.

_** PAK PAK PAK PAK**_

In front of me a Knight was hit twice in his side and one in his head, he quickly fell over but we continue to run. "Keep running!" yelled Nage from behind me. I quickly ran inside the house where Makos and the other Knights were at, Nage being last, dived into the house before a volley of bullets hit the dirt.

Inside the house we hear footsteps and murmurs upstairs. "They're inside the house" Makos whispered. "Alright, we'll clear out whatever's down here. you three clear upstairs" said a Knight.

Makos nodded and turned to me. "Listen 'ere Ken. You got the shotgun, so I think you should head up there first. Me and Nage will be right behind you,"

Part of me wanted to protest, with so much going on, fear struck me everywhere like bullets. There was no time, however. I nodded my head and readied my shotgun and I slowly walked up the stairs. Nage shouldered his Sniper and pulled out two 9mm pistols. As I walked up the stairs I could see a hallway, all the doors are closed except for one that is missing a door.

I signaled for Makos and Nage to follow. I peeked my head into the room and saw two Fang mercenaries. One of them was kneeled by a window shooting while the other was operating a radio I could hear his plea for help.

"God Damn Revs are pushing on us here on west side! We're gonna need Mortar support now!" yelled the operator.

"Mortars will take out Ernam and the others, we gotta take 'em out before they give any coordinates." whispered Nage who was standing on the other side of the doorway. I looked behind me to see Makos who gave me a thumbs up then turning around, giving us cover incase someone sneaked up on us.

"Wait until he reloads..." whispered Nage. The gunner was still shooting, but after a few seconds he stops to reload. Before we could charge right in, we heard gunfire coming from downstairs

_**TRK-TRK-TRK-TRK**_

"Shit! What the fuck was that?!" Yelled out the operator. "Reload your fucking gun! They're gonna come up here!."

Nage gave me the nod, and we both rushed in.**"SHIT!"**.shotgun out, I blindly aimed for the operator. At this range, It's impossible to miss. I pulled the trigger and fired a slug into the operator's face, followed by Nage's barrage of bullets all over the gunner who was still reloading.

_**BANGK!**_

_**TK TK TK TK TK TK!**_

The operator's head exploded into bits, hitting the walls, the radio, and me. The gunner was hit 6 times in the chest, and fell over as he bleed to death. Nage dashed into the room, and shot a bullet into the gunner's head and another into the radio. My mind shuddered at the sight, but now is not the time to freeze up or faint.

Makos yelled from outside the room, stating that the floor was clear. "Let's head downstairs." said Nage. The three of us walked down the stairs in a rush since we heard gunfire earlier.

We met up with the Knights in the kitchen, they have had a small firefight with three Fang mercs but they managed to take them out without casualties. "Alright, Nage. You need to get on top of the roof to snipe out that machine gunner." said Makos

"Won't I be easily seen?" said Nage.

"The roof has been leveled quite a bit, the rubble and debris will give you plenty of cover."

With that, Nage nodded and ran back upstairs. "Ken! You join up with these Knights and try to draw their fire!" yelled Makos.

"I can't get anything on them with this shotgun Makos!" I yelled back at him. It's true, the building where the machine gunner was firing from must be something from 50 to 60 yards

Makos turned his attention to the street outside and eyed the body of a dead Knight. "Stay right there!" he said. He stood by the door, looking like he's going to make a run for it, I wasn't sure what he is trying to achieve.

When the machine gunner stopped to reload, Makos dashed across into the street and dived onto the dead Knight.

The Mercs have spotted him and opened fired, bullets land all around Makos as he struggled to reach for something. A second later, picked up the Knight's advanced rifle and pulled something out of his neck.

Makos quickly turned and began to make his way back into the house. While he was running, one of the fuzzing bullets struck him in the head and another four in his side. I was shocked, what was the point of that? Did Makos really died for a gun?! Another shock struck me when I saw him quickly rise from the dead and ran back into the house.

"Are you fucking crazy?! You could have died out there!" I yelled at him. He sat up, panting inside his helmet.

"The -Pant- only danger was the machine gun, it's been modded especially for Knights with our power armor." He pulls out a few bullets that were stuck to his armor on his side. "These bullets won't pierce this armor but they sure as hell hurt, and can still break a few bones... My ribs hurt..."

He passes me the Advanced Rifle and a few magazines. "Here's to fix your range problem. It's called a Pulse rifle. Get some fire on that gunner nest!"

I looked at him like he went mad, did he really just ran across a bullet infested street just to get me a good weapon with better range? The bullet that had struck Makos in the head, had broken his visor and breathing tubes. He lifted his hands and raised the helmet off of his head.

The helmet revealed a young face, who had freckles and light brown hair. A small amount of blood streamed down from the side of his head. "Well, don't just stand there! Get on over to the windows and draw their fire!" he yelled. I snapped out of it and nodded, I lifted the pulse rifle and ran to the windows.

I kneeled next to some Knights and opened fired on the gunner nest. The nest was still firing at the building Ernam is in, however I bet that gunner didn't expect a second barrage of fire coming from us across the street. The gunner nest is at the top floor of an apartment complex, with the exception of a few windows, they were all barricaded. We could not see the gunner because of how dark the room he is in, the only time we can have an idea of where to shoot is when we see his muzzle flash.

With the combined fire from Ernam's forces and ours, we bought Nage precious time so he could permanently take out that gunner. There was a barricade on the window where the gunner was shooting from, it gave a lot of cover so hardly any of our bullets were actually hitting him, a small gap that give the gunner the ability to see and shoot was the only way to see him. When the gunner stopped to reload once more, a loud shot was heard.

_**BANG!**_

By the sound of that weapon, it must have been from Nage's rifle. The gunner seems to be dead, for the machine has ceased to shoot. Taking the opportunity, Ernam lead a charge from the building he was in to the building where the gunner nest was. Before someone managed to replace the gunner, the Knights already stormed inside.

Nage walked from downstairs, reloading his sniper. "Nice shot, Nage." said Makos who now had no helmet on.

We collected ourselves in the living room of the house. "Alright, we're just gonna hold our position until we get new orders fro-"

"Orders from Sergeant Major!" yelled out a Knight who can running inside the house. "We need a foothold on the next street over. Makos, your team will make that foothold."

"Understood." said Makos.

"I think we'll be here longer than I thought, we'll try not to stick with the Order for too long." whispered Nage next to my ear.

After running across some alleys, we reached the avenue leading to the next street. The only cover was a broken down car, and no one knows where enemy fire will come from. One of the Knights volunteers to make a run across.

He get's ready to run across, taking a deep breath the Knight dashes across. Astonishingly, not a single shot is fired. There was no way he could not be seen, he's practically a running chunk of metal! One by one, we ran across the street, we took shelter in a building called a "Bank."

We gathered at the main lobby, wondering why a shot hasn't been fired. "I don't like it." said Nage. "Even if they haven't fired a shot, why aren't they storming this building or something? I say we should relocate."

"I'm more afraid if they have any snipers on standby, who knows if we'll be picked off when we try to get out of here." said Makos.

"They could have moved their troops further south to flank Ernam."

"No.. they wouldn't let a side completely unprotected..."

Have we accomplished our objective? Did we really set a foothold if the street is empty? Nage sighed and gave a suggestion: "Alright fine, let's stay. I'm going upstairs to scan the street, Ken come with me."

Makos nodded and moved to a position near the doors with the other Knights, Nage and I got up to move upstairs.

"I really don't like this Nage." I said. "I know, but we're just gonna have to wait here. If we leave we risk having snipers on us."

We found a pair of windows overlooking the street, it gave enough of a view to scan nearly the entire street. Nage passed me a pair of binoculars, "Here, watch for any mercs you see. I'll keep an eye on this side." I remember a conversation I had with Nage not long ago, he mentioned how snipers usually work in pairs. How one would spot for the other, using binoculars. Of course, we're not spotting for each other, we're looking in different direction for contacts.

After a while, Nage called out to me. "Hey, I think I got something." I walked to him and used my binoculars over him. "8th building down, 5 men."

"Mercs?"

"Maybe... They're not wearing any issued armor. Mercs always have the same armor type." Nage changed the focus on his scope by twisting a dial.

"What's more... they're not wearing the Fang insignia on their arms.."

"Raiders?"

"No... They're all wearing some armor and being careful. Raiders are savages and usually half naked..."

I suddenly heard something from down the street, something very mechanic. I brought up my binoculars, from the corner of the street I see Fang mercs slowly making their way down the street. "N-Nage. I got mercs!" I yelled. Nage aimed his sniper over me to take a look himself. "Ah shit! Alright, stay right here, I'm gonna warn Makos."

I wanted to protest, but he already ran downstairs. I gulped and looked back into the binoculars. The numbers of the mercs grew larger, they began to jog down the street and finally the source of the mechanic noise was revealed. It was a vehicle! slowly moving it's way down the street, crushing whatever is in the way under its... tracks..

I-It was a tank! They have a three century old tank operational!? The tank's main gun remained still, but it had a machine gun attached to the top with a merc operating it.

Damn it... I'm frozen up again.. I was horrified by the amount of mercs there were... surely there would be around 40 or 50 of them! "Ken!" I heard Nage yelling from the stairs. One of the mercs pointed directly at me.

Nage pulled my shoulder to turn me around, "Come on man we're leaving!" but before we could move Nage froze up himself.

His eyes widened, for the first time I could actually see in his eyes, it was of fear and total shock. I turned my head back to the window to see the Tank. The tank's main gun raised up and took aim, a loud click ensued.

**"KEN GET OUT!"**

_**...**_

**_ KRRAABOOOM!_**


End file.
